To Be Human
by Dragon's Blood
Summary: Roxas is a human weapon made by Ansem to end the Heartless war. But when Roxas discovers he is to be destroyed after his purpose is served he runs away only to be hunted by Riku and the Dusks. Can a girl named Namine prove he's more than just a weapon?
1. The Beginning

Chapter One: The Beginning

* * *

The large laboratory was very dark, the only light coming from that of thirteen cylinder shaped pods along the wall. But only two of those pods were occupied. The door to the laboratory opened and the lights came on. In came two people, the first was the scientist who owned the lab. He was dressed in a white lab coat with a red scarf around his neck and had blond hair with a short beard, the other was in a black lab coat and had light sliver hair that ran just passed his shoulders.

The blond man walked over to a large computer and turned it on, then began to check the vitals of the two occupants in the pods.

"Riku, record this mornings levels will you?" The blond man asked.

"Yes, master Ansem." Riku replied.

Riku picked up a clipboard and walked over to the monitors next to pod 8 and began to write things down.

Ansem was the scientist with the assignment to create an ultimate human weapon to fight in the war against the creatures known as "Heartless". They were now in great numbers and mutating into terrifying things. They had started to destroy whole towns and villages now to satisfy their hunger for hearts. In the seventh year of the Heartless war, King Mickey gave the assignment to create the ultimate weapon to his most trusted scientist, Ansem.

Riku is Ansem's young assistant. Riku wanted to help anyway he could in this war. Both Ansem and Riku had worked on multiple human weapon experiments, but all had been failures due to simple mistakes.

All so far but experiments 8 and 13. 8 had been completed and awakened, but was too unstable and out of control to be of any use in the Heartless war.

13 had yet to be awakened, for Ansem had a few extra things he wanted to try and add to it. He had never before tried to give the experiment a high sense of self-awareness and intelligence. He hoped he could make his weapon more than just a weapon. He hoped to give it the ability to be a spy or an assassin.

Experiment 8 was in the form of a man in his early 20's. It had blazing red hair and a tall skinny body. Experiment 13 was smaller, the size of a teenage boy. This one had short spikey blond hair. Both experiments floated in clear liquid within the pod, in a deep sleep. They both had a mask that covered their noise and mouth, and a tube leading from the top of the pod to the mask gave them oxygen. Another tube appeared to be attached to the center of their stomachs, this gave them sustenance. The only thing covering them was a pair of what looked like underwear, the rest was bearskin.

"Hey master Ansem, isn't today experiment 13's creation day?" Asked Riku as he wrote down its levels.

"Why I believe so, today marks the third year of its existence." Ansem said as he walked over to pod 13. "He is almost ready to be awakened. I believe one more month of testing should let us know."

"And I can't wait, with those special modifications you've made to it, I think it'll be the best yet." Riku said with excitement.

"We mustn't get out hopes up, Riku. Though I do have much confidence in this one." Ansem said as he rested his hand upon the glass wall of the pod where 13 slept.

"Ansem sir, if 13 is a successes, then do you think it would be possible to apply it's modifications to 8? So it could be controlled this time? It's such a powerful experiment, it would be a waste not to try harder with it." Riku asked.

"Yes, the idea had crossed my mind a few times, but lets not make any definite plans until we have determined 13 a successes."

"Master, I have also wondered, exactly how much did to add to 13? What is it expected to be like exactly?"

"Well Riku, I have my ideas of what it will be like, but with the sense of thought process, self awareness and ability to learn I have added, its behavior could alter slightly. So we must be careful what we first expose it to. And I must warn you again, to not get attached to it. You know what must become of it after its purpose is served."

_later that day _

"Riku, be sure that everything is put away and you lock up before you leave for the night." Ansem instructed him.

"Of course sir, I wont be much longer."

Riku wanted to finished the book on the human weapon theories before he left for the night. As he finished it and put it back where it belonged, he started to clean the equipment and put things away.

The lights flickered a moment and the monitor screens jumped around. It lasted only a few seconds until it stopped and everything was still again.

"That was strange…" Riku said to the empty room.

But inside of pod 13, everything was not still. Experiment 13 had, on its own, awakened. It's eyes barely opened, it's vision too blurry to see anything but the colors of certain lights.

Immediately it's mind went wild with confusion.

_'What…?'_

_'Where…where am I?'_

_'Who am I?'_

The experiment could not move anything but it's eyes. It began to focus slightly on the moving object in the room.

_'Wha…what is, who is that?'_

Experement 13 had fallen back into a deep sleep.

_The next morning _

The day had been like any of the others in the past week. Ansem ran tests as Riku recorded them.

But unbeknownst to them, experiment 13 had occasionally awoken throughout the day. It was barely conscious enough to be noticed by the scientists.

Throughout the next two weeks, experiment 13 had drifted between consciousness and sleep.

'_I hear those voices again…'_

_'Where am I? Who am…I?'_

Another week had passed, one more until Ansem would awaken experiment 13. And King Mickey had come to visit.

"Good morning Ansem, Riku! How is it all going?" He said in his naturally cheery voice.

"Ah, my good friend, you came. All is going exceptionally well, I may be able to promise you a fully functioning weapon by week's end." Ansem had said.

"Oh that's perfect! I'm quite sure it will be well worth the wait." The king said.

_'I hear a different voice this time, who is that now?'_

"I'm sorry to leave so early, but there are so many other things calling for my attention, I'll be seeing you two later." The king then departed.

Not too long afterwards, Riku asked Ansem a question, while gazing into pod 13.

"Ansem sir, I know what must befall 13 after its purpose, but I don't think I fully understand why. Why can't it be used for other things after the war is over?"

'_They said '13' again, are they referring to me? Is that my name?'_

"I hope your not developing any sort of bond with it, Riku. I've warned you against it many times already."

"I know sir, I know, but I can't help but wonder."

"Well, it's purpose is solely to bring an end to the Heartless war, and to do that it will be incredibly if not frighteningly powerful. And if in the wrong hands, it can be used against us, and I don't think I'll be able to create another weapon powerful enough to even math this one."

_'Weapon? I'm…supposed to be a…weapon?'_

"At this point, there's not a doubt in my mind that experiment 13 will be a successes. But unfortunately, all my hard work will have to be taken apart in the end, to avoid anyone taking it and using it for their own purposes. So in other words, I will have to _destroy_ 13 when this is all over and done with, along with all of the research and data, don't want anyone repeating this."

'_Destroy? Destroy me? I, I don't want to be destroyed, I, I want to…to…'_

"So that's why you mustn't get attached to it, I don't know what other things this experiment will be capable of, it might even try to manipulate us into thinking it has a conscious and a heart. But never forget, this thing is not, and never will be, _human_."

_'I want to…live!'_

The lights in the laboratory began to grow incredibly bright, and then break, the monitors began to cut out and the level readings went wild and the computers crashed. All electrical devices were short-circuited.

"What is this? What's going on!" Riku exclaimed.

Then a huge crack appeared down the center of pod 13's glass wall. And experiment 13's eyes shot wide open; they looked like orbs of blinding blue light.

"It's…it's awake, but how?" Ansem stuttered in surprise.

Just then the whole front of the pod burst open, spraying glass and water everywhere. Experiment 13 now sat on the bottom of the pod that held it for three years. It tugged at the mask on its face that covered its mouth and nose. After the experiment tore it from its face, it tore the tube on its stomach off as well. 13 was now resting on all fours, face pointed to the floor of the pod, taking large gulps of air as water droplets fell from the experiment's blond hair.

There was only one light flickering at the end of the laboratory, all other lights were broken and all the computers and monitors were crashed. The only sound was the small traces of water still dripping out of the pod and 13's heavy breathing.

Ansem slowly stood up, Riku standing beside him.

"Sir…?" Riku began, but Ansem cut him off with a "Shh!"

Ansem took two steps forward, now standing only a few feet away. 13 slowly looked up, meeting Ansem's gaze.

"Get…get away for me." The experiment said to its creator.

"I have no intentions of harming you." Ansem said in a quiet voice.

"No, you're lying, you have plans to destroy me! I heard you!" 13 yelled out, now attempting to stand.

"You heard me say what? I can assure you it was a misunderstanding, you will not be destroyed." He continued to talk in a calm voice.

"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid! I know what I heard." 13 said, now standing upright, glaring at its creator. "And I'm getting out of here, right now."

"Oh no, go out there and you'll surly be destroyed. It's a dangerous and unforgiving world out there." Ansem said to it.

"No, that's what it is in here, now, get out of my way! I know what I am, and what I can do. Now move!" It yelled.

The experiment attempted to run towards the door, but just as he reached it, he felt an arm wrap around his waist and drag him down to the ground.

"Please don't make me have to resort to force to keep you in here where it's safe. I only have your well being in mind, trust me." Ansem said to his creation.

"Stop lying to me! I'm never going to believe a word you say! Get off me! Let me go!" It cried as Riku kept his grip on him.

As more and more rage filled 13, it found new strength and threw Riku off it. Then turned to face Riku and charged him. Riku and the experiment were then engaged in a brawl in the middle of the broken laboratory.

Ansem then released his older creations he called "Dusks". They were merely human shaped creatures he used for a guard. He set five of them free to restrain experiment 13.

But in the fray, the experiment slipped from their grasp and it bolted out the door and into the dark cold night.

"Riku! You must get it back! At all costs, you _must_ get it back! Take the Dusks and hunt it down. I'll get the computers back up and running here." Ansem said to his assistant.

"Of course sir, I'll have it back soon." And Riku took chase.

Experiment 13 ran down street after street, confused, cold, hungry and scared. Not knowing what was going to happen next. All it knew it wanted was to get as far away from that laboratory as possible, and so that's what it did.

Hours into the night it ran and wandered, until it could no longer ignore it's exhaustion. So 13 took refuge in an underground tunnel system that ran through the whole town. Feeling that it had hidden itself well enough for the moment, it fell asleep while thinking about its first moments of existence.

* * *

I just get these random ideas :3

So as you've already guessed (I'm sure) that experiment 13 is Roxas and experiment 8 is Axel.

To give you a better idea of what the pods Roxas and Axel were in look like, think about the beginning of the first Pokemon movie with Mewtwo. It's nearly the same to what he was in.

And so now 'experiment 13' is running around on the loose and all he be in is his undies X3

But soon he'll meet the Twilight Town group. Both Hayner's and Seifers' gangs and also he will meet Namine soon too.

I hope this boring first chapter kept your interest.

Dragon's Blood


	2. Twilight Town

Chapter Two: Twilight Town 

* * *

"Come on you guys! Hurry up!" Called out a blond boy in green camouflage pants and a green vest.

"Hold on Hayner, I just need to get my stuff together." Said a brunet girl in light tan pants and an orange shirt.

"Hey Olette, Hayner! What's keeping you two?" A black haired boy wearing blue jeans and a red jersey with a white shirt underneath called over.

"Just waiting on Olette here, then we're free as birds for the rest of the weekend!" Hayner said with excitement.

"Oh hey Pence, I'm all done so lets go." Olette said as the three of them ran out the front gates of their school.

After they had dropped off their backpacks, they headed over to their favorite place in Twilight Town, their "Usual Spot". It was just a dead end in an ally that they had added a few things to make it homey, like a small beat up couch, a large curtain over the fence for a door and some posters of the town.

"Hey you guys, what do you think of calling Namine up and having her come hang with us? I'm sure she's done with her schooling for the day." Olette said. Their friend Namine was a home-schooled girl, so they only got to see her after school and on the weekends.

"Hey yeah, go ahead and give her a call, then we can have an even number for a ball game." Said Hayner.

So Olette pulled out her phone and called Namine.

"She said she'd be here as soon as she can, but she has to walk so it might be a while." Olette informed them.

"Ok, well why don't we go outside and play some handball until she gets here? And the teams will be me and Olette against you Hayner, cuz your good enough to cover for two." Said Pence.

"Ok, I'm up for that, get the ball and lets go." Hayner said as he headed for the door.

The game had been one sided the whole time, Hayner had triple the points Olette and Pence did. So when Pence played a little more aggressively, he had by accident sent it flying into the Twilight Town Underground Concourse. A system of tunnels used as short cuts under the town.

"My bad, I'll go get it." Pence said as he ran off after it.

"Oh great, where did it get to?" Pence said to himself as he wandered further and further in. "Found it!" He said as he saw it lying beside a pile of empty cardboard boxes.

As he pushed a few of the boxes out of the way to reach the ball easier, he noticed something else lying among the boxes. What he saw made him yell out in terror and run back to his friends.

"Hey, hey you guys!" He yelled out as he came out of the tunnel way.

"So where did the ball go? Couldn't find it?" Hayner asked with his hand on his hip.

"No, you wont believe it, there's - there's a dead guy down there!" Pence said in between gasps.

"What? No way! It's dark down there so I bet your eyes were just playing a trick on you is all." Olette said to him.

"No, I know what I saw, and he was dead alright! In nothing but his underwear!" Said Pence in his defense.

"Oh alright, show me and I'll believe you." Hayner said. So Pence lead them all into the underground concourse.

"The body is right behind those." Pence said as he pointed to the boxes.

"Well all I see is our ball you failed to bring back and – " Hayner stopped talking when he saw what Pence was talking about. Olette screamed.

"Calm down! Everyone just calm down! I don't think he's dead, just unconscious." Said Hayner.

"What makes you think that?" Asked Pence.

"Because, he's still got some color in his face, plus I can sorts see him breathing. I think we should try and get him out of here. Who knows how long he's been down here." Hayner said to them both. "Grab his legs, I got his arms." And Hayner and Pence carried him out, Olette not far behind.

They placed him on the old sofa in the Usual Spot and covered him with a beat up looking blanket.

"Wow, who do you think he is? I've never seen him before, and this is a small town." Olette said.

"It's anyone's guess, but I think he might be an insane asylum escapee. He is in nothing but underwear after all." Hayner said.

"Well I've never heard of any insane asylums around here, maybe he was at a party and got too drunk and didn't make it home. Then got mugged?" Pence said.

"Or maybe his girlfriend beat him up and locked him out." Olette said with a slight giggle.

"Well whatever the reason is that this guy is like this, it can't be good." Said Hayner, and just then Namine came through the fence door.

"Well I'm finally here you guys! Hu? Who's that there?" She said, noticing the blond sleeping boy lying on the sofa.

"We have no idea," began Hayner, "Pence found him unconscious in the underground concourse."

"And he's wearing nothing but his underwear, really makes you wonder where he came from." Olette said to Namine.

Namine walked over to get a better look at him.

"How long ago did you find him?" Namine asked.

"Oh not too long ago, he's been in here 'bout 5 minutes." Pence informed her.

Namine reached out and placed her hand on the sleeping blond's forehead, to see whether he had a temperature or not, and as suddenly as her hand made contact with his forehead, his eyes shot open, his bright blue orbs gazing into hers. Nether moved for a few seconds while they stared into each other, then the boy suddenly bolted upright and darted his eyes around the room wildly, looking at each teen individually and each looked back at him with almost the same feeling of sock and terror.

"It's ok, your safe here." Namine said as soon as the boy was standing up on the couch.

"No, you're lying! Nowhere is safe! Get out of my way, I have to get out of here, no, get away from me!" The boy cried out as Namine slowly walked closer to him with her arm reached out towards him.

The boy jumped clear over her head and landed in the middle of the room, causing everyone to stare at him in shock of his little maneuver, then he located the exit and made a dash for it, only to be tackled to the ground by Hayner.

"Oh no, your not going anywhere like this! Just calm down, we only want to help!" Hayner tried to convince him.

"No, get off, let me go!" The boy was working himself into a panic.

"Your alright, I promise nothing will happen to you here, please, calm down!" Namine pleaded with him.

"Olette, grab that blanket!" Pence called out to her.

She brought it over and Pence gave it to Hayner and Namine, and with it they wrapped up the struggling boy with it. Namine wrapped herself around him too, while sitting on the ground, hoping to prevent him from hurting himself by thrashing around so much.

"Please, calm down, it's ok, shh." She repeated over to him. And finally, he slowly went limp in her arms, his head hanging over her left shoulder while he breathed heavily.

He didn't understand it, but having this girl's arms tightly wrapped around him made him feel at ease, for the first time in his whole existence.

"Is everything ok now?" Namine whispered in his ear.

As his breathing became normal again, he muttered a "Yeah…"

"Come, sit down over here." Namine said to him.

He slowly got up and walked over to the sofa with her. She kept one arm around him and the blanket was still wrapped around his body tightly.

"So, what's your name?" She asked.

"…I'm called…13." The boy said.

"'13'? That can't be right, who called you that?" Pence asked.

"My, my creator." The boy responded.

"'Creator'? You mean a parent?" Olette asked.

"A what?" The boy asked.

"A parent, you know, a mom or dad." Hayner said to him.

"I don't think I understand." The boy said as he looked up at Hayner.

"Well, I guess that doesn't matter at the moment, so can you tell us where you came from?" Pence asked him.

"I, I don't really know."

"You don't have a home?" Namine asked.

"A home?"

"Ah don't tell me you don't know what a home is ether." Hayner said in surprise.

"I don't understand."

"Well, what about your clothes? Do you know why you're practically naked?" Asked Pence.

The blond boy looked down at himself under the blanket, stretched a leg out and flexed his foot, then looked at his right hand, flexed it around too.

"Is there something wrong with me?" He asked.

"No, but people usually wear clothes when they go outside. How long have you been running around like that?" Hayner asked him.

"Not sure, but there was no light when I got here." The boy said.

"So you mean to say you've been out for about a day?" Pence said.

"I believe so." Said the boy.

"Well, if you say you don't have parents or a home, then maybe you have amnesia. Does anywhere on your head hurt?" Pence asked him.

"I'm in no pain." He replied.

"Then you're the most confusing person I've ever met." Hayner said to him.

"Why don't we go out and get him some clothes then?" Olette said to the group.

"Good old Olette, solving our problems with shopping." Pence said in a sarcastic note.

"Well if you want we can walk the streets with a boy in his underwear all day!" She said back to him.

"No, I actually agree with you Olette, lets get this poor guy some clothes before he dies of embarrassment." Hayner said as he got up.

"Here, in the meantime while we're out you can wear these." Namine said as she pulled out an old baggy white T-shirt and a pair of light blue jeans.

He took them from her and held them up, looking at them with a confused look on his face.

"Here, take this," she picked up the white shirt, "and put it on like this." She slid it over his head and helped him pull his arms out.

"And for these," she took the pants, "put them on one leg at a time, like this." She mimicked the action of putting pants on, which he copied. She helped him zip and button the pants then walked outside with him.

"Oh, he's looking better already!" Hayner said as he saw him walk out with Namine.

They all went to Market Street, all the while 13 was looking around as if he were deathly worried about something. The group kept asking him what was bothering him, but he just responded with a complement of the town.

They had found a store that carried clothes that would fit the blond boy, and quite quickly they chose him an outfit. It consisted of a black sleeveless zip up shirt, a white jacket with a red collar and a checkered pattern running around towards the top, a pair of black and white pants with a pair of black shoes with red lacing. Olette also got him some things from the accessory shop, a checkered wristband to match his jacked and two rings, one white, one black.

"Wow, now aren't you look'in good!" Olette said as 13 looked at himself in a mirror.

"Hey I'm starved, lets get some ice cream." Hayner said to the group.

"Oh, sounds good to me!" Said Pence, and then they all went off towards the train station.

…………………

"Sir I think I found where it spent the night." Riku said to a hand held device. On the receiving end was Ansem.

"And where would that be?" Ansem asked to the phone on the computer.

"In the Underground Concourse, but it looks as though it left hours ago, the Dusks are hot on its trail though, no need to worry."

"Hm, I believe it would have come across a human by now, I'm incredibly curious to see how it would have reacted. Maybe its escape isn't such a bad thing after all."

"Sir?"

"Think about it, out on its own, we can study its true behavior and its reactions. And if it responds to our liking, then we can go ahead and recapture it and begin training it for its true purpose. But Riku, you must find it quickly, for we must watch it for any unwanted behavior, such as aggression towards any human. We don't need our ultimate weapon unleashed upon the one thing it's supposed to be saving." Ansem explained to Riku.

"Understood master Ansem." And with that, he ended his transmission.

…………………

"Well here we are, this is where I live." Namine said as she opened the front door of her house in Sunset Terrace, letting the blond boy she met that day in.

The group had decided since he had no home or parents, that he should stay with one of them until something more permanent was figured out. They didn't want him sleeping in the Underground Concourse again. So they decided Namine's house would be best because she has an empty guest room for him to stay in.

"Ok, you sit down in here and I'll go get my mom to met you." Namine said.

13 looked around the room as she left. He found a sofa to sit himself down and looked around the room some more. He saw a lot of things on the walls and shelves; they made him wonder what they were for and why they were there. His gaze took him to an odd object sitting on the table in front of him. It was rectangular and had many buttons on it, he pressed to top one out of curiosity and it turned the TV on that sat across the room.

It made his head shoot up and he stared transfixed at the TV screen, not fully understanding that there weren't actual people standing within it. He soon realized that it was just a device similar to the computer he saw in Ansem's laboratory, and it made him uneasy. Then Namine finally came back into the room with her mother.

"Here he is mom, this is the boy I was telling you about." Namine said as she walked over to him.

"Hello there, I'm Tifa, Namine's mother." Tifa said as she extended her hand to the blond boy, but he just stared at her hand, then back up to her face. "Ok then." She said as she took back her hand.

"He doesn't really understand social etiquette," Namine said, "they did find him sleeping in the Underground Concourse in is underwear after all."

"Well in that case, he does seem to desperately need somewhere to stay, your welcomed here as long as you like. I'm almost done with dinner, you two look starved." Tifa said before leaving the room.

"So that's my mom, well, step mom actually. See, a few years ago my parents were killed in an accident and Tifa was my godmother, so now she's my legal guardian." Namine explained to him.

"So your sort of like me, no parents." He said.

"I guess so, but do you even remember who your parents were? Or are? You have to have had parents, how else can you exist?" She asked.

"I- " He began, but something told him to keep Ansem's laboratory and his origins a secret.

"Yes?" Namine said, waiting for him to say something.

"I don't remember anything past yesterday." He said.

"That's too bad, I really hope you remember soon. It must be such a lonely feeling, not being able to even remember who you are."

13 looked to the floor, he was beginning to feel something he had never experience before, and he didn't like it at all. Just then, Namine's voice broke that feeling apart, which he couldn't have wanted more.

"Hey, I got an idea, why not until you remember your real name, I'll give you one."

"But 13 is my name."

"13 is a number, not a name! Well, not a proper one at least. I'll think of a good one for you."

Tifa interrupted their conversation by telling them dinner was ready. The both of them came into the dinning room and sat down to eat, Tifa had made a chicken dinner, with rice and steamed broccoli on the side. Namine had to show 13 how to properly use a fork and knife, because he was attempting to eat the rice with his hands.

After dinner was cleaned up, Namine showed him to his room.

"And this room here is all yours." She said as she turned on the lights.

The room was a decent size, the bed was a twin sized one and was under the window, the walls were a tan color and there were many shelves built into one wall. There was also a desk against the wall with a computer chair, but there was no computer.

"Well then, I guess this is good night, the bathroom is just down the hall if you need it, and feel free do get what you want from the kitchen if you need anything in the middle of the night. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Namine said as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

13 stared at the back the closed door for a moment before turning and walking over to the bed. He sat on it and stared out the window. He was on the second story of the house, and had a relatively good view of the street.

As he kept an eye out for his pursuer, his mind attempted to put together that day's events. Even though next to none of it made any sense to him, he had enjoyed the company that found him. Especially that of the girl who now housed him.

…………………

There were five Dusks swarming around an old blanket in Hayner and company's Usual Spot. And in out of the cold night air came Riku, dressed in his back robe.

"I see we're getting closer to finding our experiment." Ansem's voice came through on Riku's hand held device.

"Yes, these Dusks of yours are a wonder."

"It's one of the better abilities I gave them, they are able to track down anything I happen to be looking for, that is, if it has a sent. Best to keep moving, if it slept last night, it wont sleep again for two more nights, so it might still be on the move."

"I'm on it." And with that, the five Dusks and Riku continued their search.

* * *

Chapter two end!

Roxas finally has some pants :B

And he apparently can't comprehend a simple handshake.

In the next chapter Seifer's gang will be meeting Roxas, and we all know how well Seifer and Roxas mix. And we will also be seeing some qualities that make Roxas the "ultimate weapon".

And will Riku and those annoying Dusks find him? You'll find out eventually :3

And as always, thanks so much for reading! I hope this story is interesting for you in some slight way…


	3. Roxas

Chapter Three: Roxas

* * *

It was a Saturday morning, Namine's favorite part of the whole week. She could just lay in bed all morning, no having to get up at any set time for her schooling lessons. But when she rolled over and opened her eyes, she saw something that woke her up instantly.

"Ah! It's you!" She cried out as she saw the blond boy sitting on the floor beside her bed, staring at her. "You really shouldn't scare me like that."

"You said 'see you in the morning', it's morning." He said simply.

"You don't need to take what I say literally."

"Then you should say what you mean." He said to her as he rested his chin in the edge of her bed.

"You like such a _puppy_ sitting there like that." She said to him, then reached her hand out from under the covers and ruffled his hair up.

She pulled her hand back under the sheets and stretched under them. Then she pulled them off her body and got out of bed, 13 stood up off the ground and followed her out of her room.

"So what would you like for breakfast?" She asked him.

"Breakfast?"

"Food you eat in the morning."

"I'm not hungry." He simply stated.

"Your not? Well I guess after last nights dinner you wouldn't be." But she fixed herself a bowl of cereal anyway.

They both then went out into the living room and Namine turned on the TV. At first it made 13 jump in surprise, but he soon remembered what it was from yesterday.

"Just a TV, don't suppose you know what one is?" She asked, but the boy just shook his head. "It's just something used for entertainment purposes. And I'm hoping there will be some good Saturday morning cartoons on."

They were both comfortably sitting on the sofa watching the TV when Tifa came in.

"Hey Namine, I'm going to be going out today." Tifa started.

"With Cloud?" Namine said with a little grin.

"_Maybe_, so do you think you could do some things for me while I'm out today?"

"Sure thing, what would they be?"

"Just the normal cleaning routine, vacuum the carpet and start a load of laundry. That ok?"

"I can handle that just fine, have fun with Cloud mom!" Namine said as Tifa walked out the door.

Namine and 13 finished watching morning cartoons and then started on the chores. Namine had pulled out the vacuum, and was about to start it after plugging it in until she thought of how her blond friend would react to it.

"Just to let you know, this thing makes a lot of noise when I turn it on, but it's nothing to be worrying about." She said to him, he nodded in acknowledgement.

When she had reached every part of the floor that she could without moving things around she stopped.

"Hey, do you think you could give me a hand in moving this couch away from the wall so I can clean behind it?" She asked him.

He nodded to her and walked over to it. Namine was ready to lift one side while he grabbed the other, but before she could grab the bottom of her side, the couch was three feet off the ground and moving away from the wall. She looked up to see the 13 carrying it by himself across the room as if it were nothing more than a chair.

"Uh…there is…good." She said as he gently set the sofa down in the middle of the room.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked her, Namine then noticed that she had been staring at him with her mouth open.

"Oh, nothing! Nothings wrong! Its just…normal people can't do that."

"Oh…" Was all he said. He then looked down at his hands, for he knew he indeed wasn't normal.

"I didn't mean it like that! Believe me, I'm incredibly happy you could, heavy lifting isn't my thing, but, _how_ where you able to do that? That sofa weights more than you!"

"I don't know, I just did it."

"Wow, your just one mystery after another…"

Namine finished up the vacuuming and 13 replaced the sofa the same way he moved it. She had started the laundry like Tifa had asked and then she got started on her practice schoolwork. Being home schooled she technically didn't have homework, but she liked the extra practice.

"Oh, I just can't get this problem right!" Namine said in frustration at her math book.

"What problem?" 13 came up to her and asked.

"This one, I can't seem to figure out." Namine pointed at it and let her head fall onto the pillow beside her.

13 looked at the problem for a moment. It was an algebra question.

"X is 14." He said.

Namine instantly shot back up and looked at the question again, plugging in the number 14, and it worked perfectly.

"How did you solve that so quickly?"

"I just ran numbers though the problem until one of them made sense and worked."

"You've…you've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not lying."

"Ok then, what's 7,536 times 43,658?" She asked him as she checked the answer on her calculator.

He waited a moment before answering, "329,006,688."

"No way…" She said as her calculator slid from her hand and dropped on the couch. His answer was correct.

He had helped her finish the rest of her extra study, and the last thing on Namine's agenda was to get some piano practice in. She loved to play the piano and had played a lot of self-taught songs and could learn a song just by hearing it once or twice.

She had begun to play "Moonlight Sonata" when 13 had come up behind her asking what she was doing.

"I'm playing the piano, it's just one of my hobbys. You want to give it a try?" She asked him as she scooted over on the bench to give him room to sit down next to her. When he had sat down next to her, she began to explain the workings of a piano, how they keys all made different noises and how you could make songs out of them. Just as she was doing when he walked in.

13 pressed each key individually, to hear what they all sounded like. Then he began to press down random keys, at first it didn't sound too good on the ears but it soon developed into a soothing yet slightly depressing song. Namine watched him in silence as he played the whole song out, it lasted about a minute.

"What is there you can't do with perfection?" Namine asked him in amazement. He had liften a sofa all by himself with ease, acted as a human calculator and now played a song on the piano, something he's probably never seen before in his life.

She asked again, "Who _are_ you?"

"I wish I knew…"

…………………

"Well Riku? Any sign of it?" Ansem's voice came for a receiver in Riku's left hand.

"I was almost positive it would have passed thought here, the Dusks aren't leaving this area." Riku said as he replied to Ansem.

"This is the third day if it's escape, and this town isn't that big, where could it be hiding?" Ansem said with some frustration.

"Well I think that question can be answered, because I think I've found it master." Riku said with a grin on his face.

"Did you now? Where do you see it?" Ansem asked.

"It's walking out of the train station, and it seems it's found some clothes, and a _girl_."

The Dusks all focused their attention on 13 and Namine as they walked out of the station, they had planed to meet up with Hayner and the gang at their Usual Spot.

"It appears the girl has befriended it." Said Riku.

"This is good, this shows it is non aggressive towards humans, keep on it, and make sure under all circumstances to stay hidden from it, we don't want it running off and hiding from us again. Or worse, a possible unnecessary conflict. I would hate to see you harmed Riku."

"No need to worry master."

And Riku followed 13, hidden in the shadows on the roof tops. The Dusks would constantly surround 13 on the roof tops, for if he had discovered Riku, he would not be able to escape without running into a Dusk.

When Namine and 13 entered the back alley, they saw Hayner, Pence and Olette playing a game of kick ball.

"Oh hey you two! How's everything going?" Olette called over.

"Quite well actually, our friend here settled in nicely." Namine replied.

"That's great, so are you guys up for some kickball?" Hayner asked, bouncing the ball on his foot and knee.

"Sure!" Namine said, and took 13's hand as she walked over. The action took 13 by surprise, but he followed her over anyway.

The rules were quickly explained to 13, and he naturally caught on fast.

"Ok blondie, you really?" Haynerasked 13, as he was about to roll the ball towards him. 13 gave him a quick nod and Hayner tossed the ball. And when 13 kicked at the ball, he had hit it so hard, it looked as if it had been kicked into orbit. Everyone looked at the ball fly away with jaws dropped, then slowly turned their gazes to the blond boy.

"That was what I was supposed to do right?" He asked.

"Yeah…in a way, but now we don't have a ball." Pence said.

"I was told to kick it as hard as I could, so I did." Was 13's reply.

"There he goes again, doing exactly what I say, I should watch my phraseology around this guy." Namine said to herself as she pinched the skin between her eyes.

"Oh boy, well, since we don't have a ball anymore, who feels up to a Struggle match at the Sandlot?" Hayner suggested.

"Struggle match?" 13 asked.

Pence quickly explained the game to him. The basic point was beat up your opponent and get his orbs in a limited time. And with his newly gained knowledge, they all headed to the Sandlot.

…………………

"Wow, another new record! Your definitely the best in the town, y'know?" Said an older tan skinned male teen waring a large chain around his neck, blue wrist bands, an orange muscle shirt and a pair of black pants with the number eight on one side and a red stripe going down the side of both pant legs.

"Heh, what can I say? I've got a born talent for greatness." Said a cocky older male teen with a black beanie, a small blue sleeveless vest covered by a long sleeveless white coat, with a pair of baggy grayish purple pants and large black boots.

"Undeniable." Said an older female teen in a sleeveless dark blue top and white cargo pants that went just past her knees.

"Oh, would you look at who chose to show up today?" Said the teen in the white coat.

Hayner and the gang had just shown up at the Sandlot, Struggle bats in the hands of Hayner and Pence.

"Hey, I think they want to take you on Seifer, y'know?" Said the teen in the orange shirt.

"Let them, they'll be great for a little practice." Said Seifer.

"Oh please, you've got nothing on my mad skills." Hayner said.

"Yeah, why don't you put your munny where your mouth is and bring it on! Wait a moment, who's that?" Seifer pointed his bat at 13 then began to walk over to him.

"Hold on just a minute Seifer, he's new around here so back off and leave him alo-" Hayner was in the middle of saying when Seifer shoved him out of the way and to the ground. He stopped right in front of the new blond boy, and he started back with deep anger in his eyes.

"Just who are you? And what are you doing in my town?" Seifer said with a attitude.

13 just glared daggers back at him.

Up on top of the nearest roof top was Riku, keeping a close eye on him, and so was Ansem through the Dusks.

"Riku stay on guard, this looks as though it might go bad quickly. Our experiment's defense mode hasn't been tested, how it'll react is completely unknown."

"Understood." And Riku posed himself for instant action if Ansem ordered it.

"Well, do you have a name or what?" Seifer said to him, then roughly poked him in the chest with his Struggle bat.

The action had seemed to set off a switch in 13's brain, he swatted the bat out of Seifer's hand and took a step forward.

"What do you think your doing? Your messing with the wrong guy, I'm the head of Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee, and I'm about to teach you a lesson!" Seifer said as he snatched the Struggle bat out of his friend's hand who had picked it up for him.

"Here blondie, catch!" Hayner said as he tossed a Struggle bat to 13. He had snatched the bat out of the air without looking at it what so ever.

"Riku, hold. I want to see how it handles battle. But if the young man's life looks threatened, step in." Ansem had said.

Seifer made the first move, he leaped high in the air then dived at 13 with his bat pointed out at him, like a flying arrow. But of course 13 dodged it with ease, then rounded on Seifer as he landed on the ground and swung at his back. He had knocked the air out of him, and he couldn't get up right away. As Seifer was on all fours gasping for breath, 13 took his chance and placed the bat under Seifer's stomach then fling him high into the air as if he were no more than a ball he was playing with.

As soon as he flung him up into the air, he jumped up after him, swung at him again, knocking him back to the ground with a loud "thump" and 13 landed square on his back, then jumped off. Seifer was knocked out cold. His two friends jumped in front of him to protect him from further harm from 13.

"You only won cuz Seifer was so tired from training all day, y'know?"

"Enough." Said the girl.

"Wohoo! That's what I called owned! Oh man blondie that was awesome! You so rock my sox!" Hayner said as he did a sort of happy victory dance.

"'Rock my sox'? Rock…sox, Roxas, oh Roxas! Perfect!" Namine said out loud to herself.

"What was that?" Asked Olette.

"His name, hey Hayner, his name is Roxas, not blondie." Namine said to him.

"Roxas? How do you know that? Did he finally remember it?" Pence asked.

"Nope, I just decided to name him that. I really don't want to call him 13, and blondie sounds annoying to me, since there are three of us blonds in this group." Said Namine.

"Roxas sounds like an awesome name to me! What about you blondie? Like the name she chose for you? Blondie?" Hayner said as he suddenly noticed he had moved since he last saw him.

"No Roxas stop! What are you doing?" Namine cried out as she saw him fighting with Seifer's friend in the orange shirt.

"Whoa man, calm down!" Yelled Hayner, but Roxas heard none of it.

"Riku! Act now! Its becoming far too aggressive!" Ansem said with slight panic in his voice.

"Got it." He was about to jump out of hiding with the Dusks as he heard another message from Ansem.

"Wait! What's the girl doing?" Ansem asked, Riku held back on his attack.

"Roxas, stop!" Namine yelled again, as she ran out in the fray and jumped in between Seifer's friend and Roxas. He was in mid-swing when he saw her and stopped, holding the bat inches above her head. He had a rage in his eyes that was impossible to describe, and he glared at Namine with this rage. And in Namine's eyes there was a terror that could not be described, and she looked into Roxas' eyes with this terror.

She slowly walked towards him, and gently wrapped her arms around him, hiding her face from him in his chest. At that moment Roxas' face changed from an enraged one to a calm confused one. He dropped the bat and looked down on Namine's head buried in his chest, he didn't quite understand what she was doing, but he didn't stop her.

"Don't ever look at me like that again. It scared me so badly, don't ever look at me like that again…" Namine said with a hushed voice. She was afraid to look at him in case he still bore the expression of rage.

"I'm…sorry." He said. She then looked up at him, and saw sadness in his eyes this time.

"It's ok, come on, lets go now." She said as she took him by the hand and lead him back towards the back ally to go back to the Usual Spot. The rest of the group followed in silence.

…………………

"I have just determined this situation too dangerous for you alone." Ansem said though Riku's communication device.

"So what do you plan to do?" Riku asked as he stood on a roof top just outside of the group's Usual Spot.

"I have started with a few modifications to experiment 8, when it is completed I will awaken it again and have it help you in the capturing of experiment 13. Until those modifications are complete, I'd like you to keep a watch on experiment 13, make sure it doesn't leave the town." Ansem explained.

"But when we recapture it, what will you do with it?" Riku asked.

"I will place it back in a new pod, and modify it a bit too, it obviously needs a lot more work, it did awaken too soon after all. Which still confuses me as to how it awakened all on it's own."

"Its on the move again, its with the girl and they're heading back towards the station, and shes, holding its hand…" Riku told him.

"The poor girl, she obviously believes it is a human boy. I hope she has not developed too strong of a bond to it when the times comes to capture it. Best to do so when no one is around, especially that girl. Get on the next train after it, see where it goes."

"I'm on it." And Riku entered the station.

* * *

Chapter three end!

So he finally got his name, no more calling him "blondie" or "13". Though Hayner might be a jerk and continue to call him "blondie". That be one of my nicknames D:

So you now know Roxas is capable of super strength, intelligence and ability to learn. The song he played on the piano was his theme song in the game by the way.

So in the next chapter, what will happen when Ansem releases eperiment 8? (Axel)

Will Roxas be able to keep his freedom by escaping to another town?

What about the Heartless war? As time passes and the Heartless get stronger, what extremes will Ansem go to to get his ultimate weapon back?

Dragon's Blood

p.s.

Thanks for all the reviews so far!


	4. The Haunted Mansion

Chapter 4: The Haunted Mansion

* * *

Namine opened the front door to her house and Roxas followed closely behind.

"There you two are! I was beginning to get worried." Tifa said as she came into the living room to greet them.

"Sorry mom, we ran into that gang of Seifer's today in the Sandlot. They tried to give us trouble as usual but Roxas here handled them for us, didn't you Roxas?" Namine said with a smile towards him.

"Roxas? Is that your name? When did you remember it?" Tifa asked him.

"I didn't." He said to her.

"Well what he means is that I decided to call him that." Namine said to Tifa.

"And I think it's a very fitting name. Now I can officially meet you." Tifa said as she expended her hand to him. "Nice to meet you Roxas, I'm Tifa." And this time Roxas took her hand and they shook.

"Now who wants some dinner? I ordered us a pizza and it got here about five minutes before you two showed up."

"Pizza sounds great! Come on Roxas." And the all headed into the kitchen.

Tifa and Namine grabbed themselves a few slices but Roxas declined the food offered to him, saying he wasn't hungry. Namine thought this was very odd but she didn't force him to eat anything he didn't want to.

About an hour after dinner the house started to settle themselves into bed. Namine had walked Roxas to his room.

"Don't worry about what happened today, we all get carried away sometimes. Seifer did need a good butt kicking though. But from now on try to remember, don't shoot to kill. Ok?" Namine said to him.

"Alright."

"Goodnight Roxas." Namine said and then she gave him another hug. He still didn't understand what it was she was doing, but he still didn't stop her.

When he walked into his room and shut the door, he went to go look out the window, on watch for the man in the black robe. But as he stared out the window, all he saw was still darkness.

…………………

"Master Ansem, it appears the girl is housing him." Riku said into his communication device.

"I was afraid of that, now there won't be any capturing him in the night." Said Ansem.

"I guess we will just have to come up with a way to draw him away from those other kids when we catch him." Riku concluded.

"We have no other choice. Experiment 8 is coming along well, its levels have improved greatly since the last time it was to be awakened."

"That's excellent to hear master, I can't wait to see how this one comes along too." Riku said with a little excitement in his voice.

"Yes, both of our hard work is paying off well. I believe I'll have experiment 8 ready for awakening in two days or less at this point." Ansem said through the receiver.

"Sir, it looks like experiment 13 is keeping watch out of the window, I can see it resting on the sill."

"It took me quite a while to make its body adapt to sleeping once every three days and eating every other day, this might work against us in capturing it. But it will come in very handy when it is raging war against the Heartless armies."

…………………

There was a knock on Roxas' bedroom door, and he called out, "Come in."

Namine came in the door and she saw him sitting on his bed, staring out the window.

"What are you looking at?" She asked him as she walked over.

"Nothing in particular." He responded.

"Hey are you hungry? Mom and I are gonna make some pancakes."

"Yes I am getting hungry, come to think of it. What are pancakes?" Hr asked her.

"Pancakes are one type of breakfast food, and they taste great! Help us make some and you'll see what they are." And so Roxas followed her out of his room and into the kitchen.

"Why good morning Roxas, ready to make some pancakes?" Tifa said to him.

"How can I help?" He asked. So Namine and Tifa showed him the instructions and Namine explained a few other things, like how to measure the ingredients. Namine began to giggle when she saw how seriously he took getting an exact measurement of pancake mix. After all the ingredients were in a large bowl, Roxas stirred it up quite quickly to Tifa's surprise, but by now Namine was used to these sort of things.

The batch was large enough for them all to have three pancakes each and after they all drowned their pancakes in syrup and powdered sugar they ate in the living room as they watched TV together. After their big breakfast, they all cleaned up and changed out of their nightclothes. And when they were done doing that, Namine got a call from Olette.

"Hey mom, Roxas and I are going to go hang with Hayner and the group, ok?" Namine said to her mom.

"Sure thing hun, see you when you two get back, have fun!" And then Namine and Roxas went out the door and headed towards the train station.

…………………

"So do we got everything?" Hayner asked.

"Nets, camera…yep, its all here! Just waiting on – oh hey, there they are." Pence said as he noticed Namine and Roxas come through the gate to the Usual Spot.

"Ok, we're here! What are we up to today?" Namine asked.

"Ghost hunting!" Hayner said raising a fist into the air.

"Ghost hunting? You mean we're going to that old mansion?" Asked namine.

"Yep, Hayner says the place is just over run with ghosts and we could get famous around here if we got some pictures." Olette told Namine.

"And besides, I'm just dying to get a chance to use my new camera." Pence said as he held it up.

"Well what are we waiting for? Were all here so lets get going!" Hayner said as he grabbed up his net and walked outside with the rest of the gang following close behind.

…………………

"Well here we are!" Hayner said as they all stopped in front of the huge gates outside of the old abandoned mansion.

"Oh man…" Pence pouted.

"What's wrong?" Olette asked him.

"Just look, the gates are locked up tight." He said as he pointed to them.

There was indeed a huge lock on the gate, locking them all out.

"If no one has lived here for years then why in the world is it locked?" Hayner said with frustration in his voice.

"Looks like that plan of ours is washed down the drain." Namine said with a frown on her face.

"If the gates were unlocked we could still go in, right?" Roxas asked her as he noticed her disappointment.

"Well yeah, but I don't see how we're going to do that." She said to him.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." Roxas said as he walked over to the eight-foot tall brick wall. He looked up at it for a moment, then knelt down a little and jumped with all his strength and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled himself up with ease. Then he jumped down to the other side and walked over to the inside of the locked gate and undid it, opening the gates for his friends.

They all just stared at him with their jaws dropped, just as they did the other day when he kicked the ball into the sky and out of eyesight.

"Blondie, you are the man!" Hayner said as he ran though the gates, the rest of the group followed at a walk behind him.

"I told you his name is Roxas, Hayner!" Namine called out after him.

"Yeah, yeah, Roxas. Got it." He said as he opened up the double doors in the front of the mansion.

When they all looked into the mansion, they saw how trashed the whole place looked. There was debris all over the tile floor that looked like pieces of the ceiling and furniture. There were missing tiles and everything was coated in a layer of dust. All the windows were foggy with dirt so the light coming through them was a dirty golden yellow color. There was two stair cases that both lead to an upstairs hallway that lead to two rooms on ether side. The carpet on the stairs looked like dust moths ate it because there were so many holes and tares in it.

The foyer itself was a huge room, and every step the group took echoed slightly. As they all reached the center of the room, a loud "BOO!" came from behind them. Everyone except for Roxas jumped and screamed then turned around to see Hayner laughing so hard they thought he would wet himself.

"Oh man I got you guys so good!" Hayner said in between his laughter.

"Hayner you big jerk!" Olette said as she started pounding her fists on his chest.

After Hayner's little prank, the group split up into two parties to explore the haunted mansion faster. The first group was Hayner and Olette, the second group was Pence, Namine and Roxas. Hayner and Olette stayed in the foyer to explore it a little more while Pence, Namine and Roxas went into the room to the left.

"Wow, look at this room, I think it used to be a dinning room." Pence said as he took a few pictures. There were armchairs spread all throughout the room, and the large table in the center of the room was crushed by a chandelier that had obviously fell from the ceiling.

"Roxas, what's wrong?" Namine asked as she noticed how he looked worried and jumpy.

"Its, its nothing. I'm just, spooked is all." He lied, and she knew it. She's seen him with this paranoid look around town as well.

"What was that!" Pence yelled out.

"What?" Namine said as she spun around the room.

"Just now! Something white ran across the wall!" He said, pointing to the wall across the room.

"Knock it off Pence, Hayner was enough of a heart attack today." Namine said.

"No I'm not trying to scare you, I really saw something!"

"Uh-hu, of course you did." Namine said as she rolled her eyes and turned back around.

"No, I saw it too, it was right over there." Roxas said, pointing to the same wall Pence did.

"Are you serious? Ok, I want out of this room in that case." Said namine as she walked towards the door.

"I have to try and get a picture of whatever it was first. What if it was just a piece of trash being blown around by the wind through the broken window?" Pence said as he got out his camera and aimed it towards the chair he saw the white figure go behind.

"Then go scare it out and take the picture, this room is really giving me the creeps." Namine said as she hugged herself.

"Uh, Roxas, could you go behind the chair and see what it was?" Pence said with a nervous tone in his voice.

"Sure." And with that he walked over.

"Wussy." Namine said just loud enough for Pence to hear.

"Hey, I don't see you going over there ether." He said back to her.

Just as Pence turned around to where Roxas was, he saw the white figure dart back across the room to hide under another chair, and as it did so he took the shot.

"Whoa, did you see that?" Pence said out loud.

"Yeah, and I hope you got the picture because we're leaving this room right now!" Namine said as she grabbed the back of Pence's shirt and dragged him out of the room. Roxas following close behind.

When they got back to the mansion's foyer, they saw Hayner and Olette rubbing off some dirt on the window so they could see out into the backyard.

"Hey you two, find anything _scary_?" Pence asked as they walked up to them.

"Not really, so far this place has been a let down." Hayner said in disappointment.

"Oh I wouldn't say that, Namine, Roxas and I ran into something pretty exciting." Pence said with an eyebrow raised.

"You did? What did you guys find?" Olette asked in excitement.

"I think we really found a ghost! It was white and everything! And I might have even gotten a picture of it, I hope I did anyway, that thing moved like lightning." Pence told them.

"Awesome! Lets just explore one more room before we leave." Hayner said, then they all headed upstairs.

The next room they all entered together looked like a small library.

"Wow, look at these books! They're so old." Namine said as she took one off the shelves. It was coated in so much dust she had to wipe it away to even read the title. "Oh man, this book is 75 years old."

"Dude, this mansion must have been built when Twilight Town itself was!" Pence said as he looked around at the books on the walls.

"Well, it looks like we're not going to find anything in this room, lets head back to the town guys." Hayner said.

They all left the room and headed back down the stairs. But then half way down the stairs Roxas stopped dead in his tracks and was transfixed on something all the way across the room. His face was drained off all color.

"Roxas, what's wrong?" Namine said with urgency in her voice. "Roxas!" She said as she then put her hand on his shoulder and shook it a bit. He then looked back at her, then back over to the far corner of the foyer.

"There, there was a guy in a black hooded robe! Over there in that corner, but now he's gone. I really think we should leave – now." Roxas then hurried down the stairs and ran for the double doors in the front of the mansion, yanked them open and bolted outside.

"Roxas wait!" Namine called out and they all ran after him, all of them were now as scared as he was. They didn't stop running until they got back to the Usual Spot.

"What…as that…all about?" Hayner huffed as they finally came to a stop. Everyone was out of breath but Roxas, who was still looking around wildly.

"Hey guys, lets develop the film and see what it caught." Pence said as he took his camera out.

"Good idea, lets see it." Olette said.

They then printed out all the pictures in the camera. Most of the pictures were just of the different rooms they were in, but the one Pence had taken in the destroyed dinning room showed something different. It was blurry, but the shape was clear enough. The white creature had an oddly shaped head, no eyes, and big teeth. It's body was slender and had very thin arms and legs that were tucked to its sides, it seemed to be slithering through the air.

"Is _that _what you guys saw? That's freaky!" Hayner said as he looked at the picture.

"I could have sworn it was just a trick of the light at first." Namine said.

"Wait, what's this last one?" Olette asked, picking it up.

"Oh, I took that one just before we ran out. I think it might be what Roxas saw." Pence said, taking a look at it too. The whole gang did, and they could make out a man standing in the corner wearing a hooded black robe.

"That mansion is without a doubt haunted! And we have proof!" Hayner said.

"Yeah, no denying that now." Pence said, collecting together his photos.

"Well it's getting late, I got to get home before mom starts to worry again." Namine said.

"Yeah you're right, I got to get going too." Olette said, checking her watch.

"Aw, come on guys! It's the last day of the weekend! Don't ya wanna hang just a bit longer?" Hayner asked.

"Of course I do, but as you mentioned there is school tomorrow and I have to get ready and get some rest for tomorrow, no midnight adventures for me." Namine said to him.

"Oh ok, see you two later then." Hayner said as he waved to them as Namine and Roxas walked out of their Usual Spot.

On the way back to the train station, Namine asked Roxas some questions.

"Towards the end of that mansion trip, that figure really got to you didn't it?" She asked. Roxas just nodded his head.

"Why did that black figure scare you so badly if that white ghost thing didn't phase you at all?"

"Not sure." Was all he said to her. She figured he didn't want to talk about it so she dropped the subject.

When they had gotten home Tifa offered them dinner, which Roxas declined because he had eaten breakfast that morning. Roxas sat with Namine on the couch as they watched TV while Namine ate her dinner. Tifa had gone to bed no too long ago. After Namine finished her dinner she set the plate on the table in front of her and continued watching TV with Roxas. Not too much later she had fallen asleep and slumped over and rested her head on Roxas' shoulder. He knew she was asleep so he did not wake her.

Roxas' mind was going wild with the events of today. He had realized what that mansion was and that who and what the things were he saw in there. He wondered why he didn't recognize the mansion sooner. But then remembered that when he escaped it was all too dark to see details.

In the basement of that mansion was the laboratory Roxas was created in and escaped from. The white "ghost" they saw was one of the Dusks sent after him, and the black hooded figure was none other than Ansem's assistant, Riku. Roxas was puzzled as to why Riku and the Dusks didn't make a move to capture him.

He started to get sleepy himself, for the first time in three days. He let himself fall to sleep and when he did so, he slowly fell over to the side, Namine laying on him as he did so.

…………………

"Master Ansem, why didn't you let me capture experiment 13? I could have done it with ease, all the Dusks were positioned perfectly! And I highly doubt it will ever willingly go into the mansion again now that it's seen me and the Dusks!" Riku complained into the communication device while sitting on a rooftop outside of Namine's house.

"Because Riku, the other children were there, I have told you already that I do not want them near when you do so. And that is because it will without a doubt get extremely violent in order to get away, I do not want you or those children harmed." Ansem explained.

"I…I understand sir. I'm sorry." Riku said with a little disappointment and shame in his voice for his little out burst.

"You've no need to apologies Riku, I understand your frustration. And I must say I am sorry for asking you to constantly follow our experiment." Said Ansem.

"It's of no burden to me sir."

"Ether way this should not last much longer, for tonight I am awakening experiment 8. It is ready. Tomorrow I want you to come back to the laboratory and meet it, but leave the Dusks to trail experiment 13." Ansem told Riku.

"Will do sir." And with that, Riku ended the transmission.

* * *

Chapter 4 end!

Poor Roxas doesn't know what a hug is D:

And Hayner is still calling him Blondie :3

So Ansem is all ready to awaken Axel! Or "experiment 8".

What will he be like? Is he just what the doctor ordered to catch Roxas? Or can Roxas out smart Ansem, Riku and 'experiment 8'?

Till next time,

- Dragon's Blood

p.s.

Thanks for those reviews! You reviewers are awesome! As for those of you who read and run, you're lazy D:


	5. Axel

Chapter Five: Axel

* * *

It was Monday morning when Namine woke up on the couch. She opened her eyes slightly and looked around the room. She remembered how she had dozed off while watching a movie on the TV in the living room with Roxas. And when she remembered that she realized she had her head resting on something soft and warm. She looked up to see she was using Roxas' stomach as a pillow; he was still fast asleep himself.

She carefully got up without waking him and walked into the kitchen to make some breakfast for them both. She noticed a note on the counter when she walked in, it was from Tifa.

_Namine,_

_I had to get into work early today. I trust you can begin today's studies by yourself until I get back later today. I left you and Roxas some French toast for breakfast if you want it._

_Love,_

_Tifa_

_p.s._

_Good morning!_

Namine loved how thoughtful her stepmother was. She found the French toast and warmed it up and brought it out into the living room where Roxas was still sleeping on the couch. She set the food down on the table and turned on the TV, the noise finally woke Roxas up.

"I see your finally awake! Here, I got you some toast." Namine said as she took a seat next to him. He thanked her and only took two bites of breakfast, he wasn't hungry at all but he didn't want to reject the food he just gave her.

After he had helped Namine clean up after breakfast, she got to work on her schoolwork for the day. The majority of Mondays consisted of math work, and with Roxas around to help her it went by quickly. Namine had finished with about an hour to spare before she expected a phone call from Olette telling her that Hayner and the gang were out of school and waiting in the Usual Spot. So she thought of something she and Roxas could to do pass the time.

"Hey Roxas, do you want to play the piano with me?" She asked him as she sat down on the bench in front of the piano.

"Sure." He said and joined her.

Namine started the song; it was another one by Beethoven. And this one was Fur Elise, after she was playing for about a minute, Roxas joined in and it couldn't have sounded more perfect. And during the song Namine noticed a small smile tugging at Roxas' lips and in turn it made her smile too.

After Fur Elise, Namine began to play another one of his famous songs, Waldstein Sonata. Roxas mostly just listened to this one for a little bit before he joined in the 25 minute long piano song. And this time around he was really smiling. Namine realized it was the first time she has ever seen him smile since they met. They continued playing their piano songs until Namine heard the phone ring; she got up to answer it while Roxas kept playing by himself.

"Hello?" Namine said as she picked up the phone.

"Hi Namine! It's Olette, we're all here in the Usual Spot waiting for your pampered home schooled self to get here." Olette said jokingly.

"Oh ha ha." Namine said sarcastically.

"Hey, I hear music in the background, is the TV on or something?" Olette asked.

"No, that's Roxas playing the piano actually."

"What? No way! It sounds so good! You taught him right? I mean you're so good too."

"That's the funny part, I didn't teach him anything. The first night I brought him here he played a song he made up all on his own and it sounded wonderful."

"We have to come over and hear you two play together sometime!" Olette said with enthusiasm.

"That would be fun! But for now I'll just get him and hurry over."

"Ok, see you two soon then Namine!" And then they both hung up.

Namine walked back into the piano room where Roxas was still playing.

"Hey Roxas, that was Olette, she says they're waiting for us in the Usual Spot. Let's go." Namine said. Roxas closed the lid over the piano keys and followed her out the door. Namine had left a note for her stepmother telling her that she had gone out and she had finished all her schoolwork for the day and left it out for inspection.

The whole way over to the Usual Spot Namine noticed how on guard Roxas seemed to be.

"Hey, what's wrong? You seem so tense." She said as she placed a hand on his upper arm.

He replied with his usual, "nothing is wrong" and so she stopped asking him and continued on their way.

……………………

"Master Ansem, when did you find the time to teach it piano?" Riku asked with a little chuckle in his voice. He had heard the music thought the open window of Namine's house while they had played.

"Back when I had just barely begun work on 13 I had foolishly thought after the war I could have kept it as a servant and companion. I always loved music." Ansem said through the communicator.

"Times have changed hu?"

"Indeed they have, and speaking of which, Riku come back to the laboratory. Experiment 8 is wide-awake and eager to meet you. Leave the Dusks to follow 13."

"I'll be there as soon as I can sir."

As Riku sent the Dusks off to follow after Roxas, he headed back to the laboratory at a brisk walk. He had soon appeared in Ansem's study.

"Ah, Riku, for the first time in five days we can talk in person! Come, it is back here. This one is much different from 13, as you will see." Ansem said as he walked Riku into the laboratory.

Riku saw it standing there, facing him with its arms behind its back and a half smile on its face. It had flaming red hair that was spiked and a red mark under each green eye, it was also in a black coat identical to Riku's. When Ansem motioned to it, it came at a slow pace towards them and stopped three feet in front of them and extended a hand to Riku. Riku looked taken aback by its social behavior, but took its hand anyway and shook.

"Nice to met you at last Riku, I am Axel." It said to him.

"Axel? Well it's nice to finally met you too." Riku responded.

"I decided to give it a name so it can perform its duty properly." Ansem said.

"To capture 13 it needs a name?" Riku asked.

"Yes, it will all make sense once I explain the plan to you, Axel already knows what to do."

……………………

"Hey you two! It's a hot one today isn't it?" Pence greeted Namine and Roxas as they came in.

"Yeah, it sure is." Said Namine.

"Olette says Blondie isn't half bad on the piano, is that true?" Hayner asked.

"She's right, _Roxas_ is very talented when it comes to music, and math." Namine said to him.

"Math? How so?" Olette asked.

"He's like a human calculator, because of him I finished up my work early and we had time to just play the piano together, that's when I got that phone call from you and you heard him."

"Would you have told us if I hadn't heard him?"

"If you guys ever came over I would have surprised you."

"Well, how's about some ice cream you guys? It's ridiculously hot and I'm hungry." Hayner said as he got up off his seat.

"That's sounds like a plan to me!" Pence said and they all followed Hayner out of they're Usual Spot.

After they had gotten themselves some ice cream and they were heading over to the station to munch on their sea salt ice cream atop the station tower, they noticed a commotion going on up the street.

They group was caught off guard when someone came running out from around the corner and crashed into them, causing them all to drop their ice cream. Hayner was the first to stand up and see who had knocked them down, expecting to see Seifer.

"Hey man, why don't cha watch where your going! Hu? Who are you?" Hayner said as he saw who it was.

It was a man dressed in a black robe with bright spiky red hair. He had fallen to the ground too. As he got up and brushed himself off, he gave Hayner an explanation.

"I'm really sorry about that, you see, this white thing stole my munny and I was casing after it when I ran into you guys. If I catch that damned thing I promise I'll pay for that ice cream you lost because of me." The red haired man said.

"Well in that case, I'll help." Hayner said.

"Yeah count me in too, thieving is low." Said Pence.

"Us too." Olette said as she and Namine got up.

"Who are you?" Roxas suddenly demanded in a hard voice. The black coat the man was wearing lead Roxas to believe he was associated with Riku and Ansem.

"So sorry about not introducing myself, I'm Axel. I'm quite new around here." Axel said to the group.

"Hayner."

"I'm Pence."

"My name is Olette, nice to met you Axel."

"Mine is Namine."

"…" Roxas didn't give his name.

"Excuse him, he's not too good with these sort of things. His name is Roxas." Namine introduced him.

"Roxas? Nice to meet you. Well if we plan to catch that thief, we should really get going. We've given it long enough of a head start I'd say." And so they all raced off towards the station plaza, where the white creature ran off.

Once they all got there, the creature was nowhere to be seen, but there was a wallet lying in the middle of the plaza, the creature must have dropped it.

"Ah, here we go. Looks like I got lucky." Axel said as he picked up his wallet. "So, as I've promised, I'll go buy you all that ice cream." And they then headed to Market Street.

"So Axel, what was that thing anyway? It looks like something we found the other day in that haunted mansion." Hayner said in between licks of his ice cream.

"I'm not sure, but it darted passed me while I was walking through market street's tram common. It didn't take me long to notice it swiped my wallet. Do those things appear around her often?" Axel asked.

"No, this is the first we've heard of it." Pence said, he had already finished his ice cream.

"I hope whatever those things are, they wont become a nuisance, and that they're not dangerous." Olette said.

"Hey, you ok there Roxas?" Axel asked him as he noticed how he was giving him a glare and hadn't touched the ice cream Axel bought for them all.

"What's up buddy?" Hayner asked him.

"It's nothing." He said and took a lick of the ice cream.

"Well I hate to say it, but I have to get going." Axel said as he got up and was about to start walking down the street.

"Hey Axel, will we see you again?" Olette asked him.

"I'm going to be in town for the next few days, so it's a possibility. I'll keep an eye out for you guys. Thanks again for helping me find my munny!" He said as he departed.

"He's a nice guy, too bad he's only going to be here a few days." Said Pence.

"Well you heard what he said, we might be able to hang with him again before he leaves to do whatever it is he does." Hayner said.

"Hey it's getting sorta late, and my mom should be home about now. I think Roxas and I should be going." Namine said to the group.

"That time already? Well ok, we'll see you guys tomorrow then." Hayner said as the group waved them goodbye.

On the train ride home Namine asked Roxas a few questions.

"Roxas, you seemed a little angry around that Axel guy we met today. What about him made you so mad?" She asked.

"He looked too familiar is all, like that guy we saw in the mansion yesterday." He said to her.

"But, we were the only one's in that mansion the other day."

"No, that was a man there in the corner. He was real."

"How could you tell?"

"Because I've seen him before."

"You've seen Axel before?"

"No, just another man in the same black coat. And that white creature that took Axel's munny sounded a lot like that white creature we saw in the mansion too."

"This is all sounding too weird to me to be true."

The train came to a stop and they both got out and rounded the corner to go home.

……………………

"Ah Axel, there you are." Riku said as he saw him come around the corner and joined him on the rooftop outside of Namine's house. "How did it go?"

"I'd say pretty well. The group seems quite comfortable around me, all except for Roxas."

"Who?" Riku asked, the name was unfamiliar to him.

"The experiment, it has apparently acquired a name since it's freedom. And he didn't seem to take to me as the others did. The way he looked at me, he didn't seem to trust my motives. But in time I'm sure I'll have him where you want him."

"Excellent work Axel, things are going smoothly thanks to you." Riku complemented him.

After Axel's report, Riku relayed it all to Ansem.

……………………

The next day after Namine's schooling, she and Roxas went to hang with Hayner and the gang as usual. But this time when the two of them showed up, they saw an unexpected guest at the Usual Spot.

"Axel?" Namine said as she and Roxas walked in.

"Well hiya Namine, Roxas. Hayner spotted me just a while ago and invited me in." Axel said.

"And I was just thinking of getting us some ice cream, I'll be right back." Hayner said, but as he got up so did Axel.

"No, let me. I still feel like I owe you all for the other day."

"Well, if you insist." Hayner said as he sat back down, he didn't seem too eager to persuade Axel to let him take care of it.

"Hey Roxas, you want to come with me? I need someone to help me carry them all back, I only have two hands." Axel said as he held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.

"You should go with him Roxas, I'm sure if you two talked one on one you would be friends before you know it." Namine said as she gave him a little shove towards the exit.

Roxas just gave her a look from over his shoulder, sighed and followed Axel out of the Usual Spot. When they were a good distance away from the Usual Spot, Axel began to ask Roxas some simple questions as an attempt to break the tension.

"So Roxas, I take it you haven't been here long ether. How long ago did you come into town?" He asked.

"…I've been here for almost a week." Roxas replied.

"Is that so? Who are you staying with then?"

"A good friend of mine is keeping me."

"Is that friend Namine? Whenever I see you it's with her by your side."

"Yes, that's the one."

There was silence for about a minute after Roxas said his reply. Then it was Roxas who started asking the questions.

"So uh, how about you? How long have you been here?"

"Me? Well I've been here all of two days." Axel said.

"So where is it that your staying? Are you with a friend too?"

"I guess you could say that. But the place is all the way across town. But then again it's not like I'll be staying here for much longer, I'm always moving about and such."

"Oh, we must have went past the turn, we're at Station heights, we need to go back." Roxas said as he took a look around.

But just as Roxas turned around to start heading back to Market Street, a grin spread across Axel's face and five Dusks jumped from off of the rooftops to surround them both.

"What is this?" Axel said aloud in a mad and confused voice to make it all the more convincing to Roxas. Just then one of the five Dusks jumped on Axel and pined him to the ground. Axel was obviously holding back his true strength to play the part Ansem had planed for him.

"Roxas, run! Get out of here!" Axel yelled to him.

But Roxas made no move to run, he instead glared at two of the Dusks in front of him. Another switch went off in his brain, similar to what happened when Seifer poked him in the chest with a Struggle bat. He then jumped at the nearest Dusk with lightning speed, grabbing it by the arm. He then swung it around over his head and hurled it at another Dusk. The collision was so powerful that it instantly killed both Dusks.

Two other Dusks came at Roxas and jumped him, pushing him to the ground. Then Roxas saw someone else descend from the rooftops, a man in a black robe. He walked over to Roxas and stopped five feet in front of him.

"Oh how long this chase was, now it's come to an end. Ether you come back with me quietly, or we do so with force. You really have no choice." The man said, he then removed his hood to revel long silver hair and bright aqua eyes.

"Riku…" Roxas said from under the Dusks.

"Oh so you remember my name? Now come on, we're taking you back." Riku said as he began to walk towards Roxas. For a moment Riku thought Roxas had given up and would come along quietly, but he was quite wrong.

Roxas suddenly shot up, the two Dusks flying off him; he turned around to see Axel still pined to the ground by the other Dusk. He ran towards him and kicked the Dusk off him with all his might. The Dusks flew off Axel and hit the wall of the train station so hard it appeared to shatter. Roxas then pulled Axel to his feet.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Roxas said to him as he began to make a run for it.

Riku made a motion to Axel to grab Roxas and restrain him, but for some reason Axel hesitated long enough for Roxas to get away before going after him. On Roxas' way down the street he noticed that Axel wasn't right behind him, he waited a moment behind a corner until he heard some one running down the street.

"Hey Roxas, where did you –" Axel had began to say until Roxas grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a corner to hide in case they were still being chased.

"Are those things after you too?" Roxas asked him.

"No, not that I know of. And why did you save me?" Axel said.

"Well you're my friend aren't you? The others say you're their friend so that must mean you're my friend too. And as far as I understood that's what friends do for each other, they look out for them. But why does your coat match Riku's exactly?" Roxas asked with a little anger in his voice.

"Your not thinking I was with them are you? No way! And it's not like these coat are one of a kind you know."

"I guess it doesn't really matter at the moment, come on, we got to get back to our friends before those things and Riku find us again." Roxas said as they both got up and took the fasted rout back to the Usual Spot.

……………………………

Just as Axel had took off after Roxas when they had been attacked by the Dusks, Riku called the remaining two Dusks back to him. He didn't want them going after Roxas and getting destroyed like the other three did.

"He took them out way too easily master, this is a big problem." Riku said through his transmitter.

"Yes, looks like I'll have to make more in the mean time while I come up with something more powerful to assist in experiment 13's capture." Ansem said.

"Master Ansem, I also noticed something strange about 8 when I told him to capture 13 when he began to run away. He seemed hesitant to do as I said."

"Then I don't want 8 around 13 any more that it has to be. The last thing we need is for experiment 8 to become corrupt and run wild like 13."

"And what actions will we have to take if such a situation occurs master?" Riku asked.

"Unfortunately…we would have to destroy them both in any means we can."

* * *

Chapter five end!

When Namine and Roxas were playing the piano together, Roxas began to play the song with Namine when the music became more fast or louder. So if you want, you could go check those songs out on a site called project playlist.

And as for Axel, he's playing the role of an expert con artist. Will he stay on task and assist in the capture of Roxas? Or will he choose friendship over his own life?

In the next chapter Roxas will be making a drastic move to again avoid capture by Riku and Ansem. But with the armies of heartless getting ever closer to large towns like Twilight Town for instance, Ansem too will be going to more drastic lengths to get his experiment back.


	6. Traverse Town

Chapter six: Traverse Town 

* * *

"Man, where are those two? They left nearly a half hour ago." Hayner said as he slumped on his seat.

"Hey I think I hear someone coming." Olette said as she got up to look.

In came Roxas followed by Axel. The first thing everyone noticed about them was the fact that their clothing looked dirty, their hair was messed up and they had a few scratches on their faces.

"What happened to you two?" Namine said as she ran over to Roxas.

"Those damned creatures from yesterday attacked us." Axel said to the group.

"There are more of them?" Pence asked.

"Yeah, there were at least five of them. But you should have seen it! Roxas here utterly destroyed three of them and saved my butt." Axel said as he patted Roxas on the shoulder. As Namine looked at Roxas she noticed how worried and upset he looked as he stared at the ground.

"I think we should go home now." Namine said loud enough for everyone to hear as she took Roxas by the hand and slowly walked towards the exit.

"So soon Namine?" Olette asked.

"Yeah, I think it would be for the best." Namine said as she looked at Roxas. "I'll see you all tomorrow." And with that she and Roxas left.

On the way to the train station Roxas seemed to be on high alert, his eyes darting all around.

"What up this time?" Namine asked him, she was still holding his hand from when they left the Usual Spot.

"This is where those creatures attacked Axel and I. I don't want them jumping out again and hurting you this time." He said as he tightened his grip on her hand and quickened his pace to get to the station faster. Even with the knowledge that those white creatures might jump them, Namine wasn't worried at all, she had Roxas with her.

When they both got home, Tifa was there. So they started an early dinner and sat down to eat in the living room. But Roxas of course hardly touched the food in front of him. After they cleaned dinner up, Namine took Roxas into her room.

"Are you sure your ok? Your more quiet than usual." She asked him as they both sat on her bed.

"I'm fine."

"You know you were never a very good liar. It's ok to tell me, what's wrong?" She asked again as she leaned over to see his face.

"My head hurts." He said simply.

"Is that all? You sure that nothing else is bothering you? Something in here maybe?" She asked as she placed her hand on his chest over the spot where his heart is. The question puzzled him.

"No, nothing there is in pain."

"Well ok then, so it's your head that hurts?" Namine asked and Roxas nodded his head. "Ok, lay down here." She patted her hand on her pillow, motioning him to lay his head on it.

When he did she leaned over him and gently placed her fingers on his temples and massaged them slowly, he closed his eyes in relaxation as she did so. She then began to slowly stoke his eyebrows and then run her fingers through his hair while massaging his whole head. She did this for nearly a half hour before she stopped and laid down next to him and rested her head in the crook of his neck and fell asleep.

Roxas opened his eyes and looked at her resting on him. He let her lay there a bit longer, enjoying the warmth he felt coming off her until he slowly worked out from under her and gently placed a sheet over her to keep her warm, then he silently left her room.

He went into the dark living room and sat down on the couch, thinking to himself. He knew he couldn't stay here anymore because if he did Ansem would most definitely capture him and his friends might get hurt in the process. The only solution he could see to this problem was just to simply leave. So he quickly made up his mind and headed for the door, but just as he placed his hand on the doorknob he heard someone come into the room. He turned around to see Namine standing in the hallway with a blanket wrapped around her.

"Roxas, what are you doing up?" She asked him.

"I'm…I have to leave." He said without looking her in the eye.

"What do you mean? You don't have to go anywhere." She said as she walked out into the room and over to Roxas.

"Yes I do, you're in danger if I stay here any longer."

"Why on Earth would I be in danger with you around?"

"It's complicated, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." He said and then began to open the door.

"Wait, just hold on. Even if I don't believe your story, I'd like to hear it."

"I really don't think I should tell you."

"Then can you just tell me why you think you have to leave for my own safety?" She asked him as she placed her hand on his shoulder. He let out a sigh before closing the door and turning to face her.

"I'm a runaway, and I'm being cased by those white creatures. That's why they're here, they're after me." He explained to her.

"Come to think of it, those things did only turn up after you came along. Who or what were you running away from?"

"That's what I don't want to tell you."

"Come on Roxas, you can tell me anything, you trust me don't you?"

"I do trust you, but that doesn't mean I can tell you everything."

"Well ok, maybe later you might. But what are you planning on doing? Are you really going to leave? Because I…really don't want you too."

"I don't want to ether. But I don't want to see you hurt because of me, so I have to leave. My mind is made up, I'm sorry."

"Fine, then I'm going with you."

"What? No, if you come with me you'll be in even more danger. You can't be around me at all."

"Well my mind is made up too, if you leave, I'll follow you." Namine said as she folded her arms.

"You sure you want to go with me? I'm not sure where I'll go or if I'll ever come back."

"It's not like I have a lot here for me anyway. Sure I have amazing friends and a loving stepmother, but I know in my heart I'll see them again."

"Ok, I guess it looks like I'll have company then." Roxas said with a half smile.

"Let me just grab some things and we'll be off." Namine ran back to her room and put on some traveling clothes and left Tifa a note about why she's gone. Namine knew her stepmother will go crazy when she finds it, but she'll just have to deal with that when she gets back.

As Namine and Roxas walked into the night and headed for the train station, Roxas couldn't shake off the feeling they were being followed. As a precaution, he kept and arm around Namine's shoulders to make sure nothing would grab her. And as they reacted the front doors of the train station, someone approached them from the left.

"Well I never thought I'd see you two running around so late." The voice said. Roxas turned around to see Axel walking out of the shadows.

"I could say the same thing to you." Roxas said as he saw whom it was.

"Well I like my early night walks, so why are you two out at this time? Isn't it past curfew for your age?" Axel asked. Namine looked up at Roxas, waiting to see what kind of answer he would give Axel.

"If you must know, we're leaving for the next town." Roxas said, Namine was surprised he told him the truth.

"Leaving town eh? How come?"

"We have friends in the next town over and they invited us over for a while." Roxas said to him.

"What town would that be?" Axel seemed like he would never run out of questions.

"Traverse Town." Namine said, thinking of the closest town to theirs.

"You don't say, I have business there, mind if I join you two? You might need me after all, I don't think they give out tickets to your age group at this time of night without an adult."

"It would be nice to have a friend like you along." Roxas said. Axel smiled and followed them into the train station.

…………………..

Riku had remained in Ansem's laboratory, assisting him in creating more Dusks and a new creation known as "Creepers". Their arms were longer than their legs and used their hands as feet. They were also shape shifters and transformed into various weapons for attack. Just as Riku and Ansem finished making a total of ten Creepers and Dusks, they got a message from Axel.

"Ansem, it looks like Roxas has plans to leave for the next town over, Traverse Town. And he's bringing that girl, Namine with him. I got him to allow me to accompany him." His voice came out of the computer in the laboratory.

"Excellent work Axel, just keep your eye on it. I'll soon have my Creepers ready for you. Then I'll soon have Riku and the Dusks join you. This time it wont be getting away from us." Ansem's voice came out of the receiver in Axel's hand.

Axel ended the transmission and followed Roxas and Namine onto the train to Travers Town.

…………………….

The train cab they were in was empty except for the three of them. Namine laid down on the bench seating and rested her head on Roxas' lap and fell asleep. The train ride would be lasting all night. Axel had taken a seat a little farther down the cab, and just looked out the window. There was no conversation for quite a while.

"Aren't you going to try and sleep?" Roxas asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Who? Me? Naw, I'm not tired. What about you? Aren't you going to try and catch some Z's?" Axel asked him.

"No, I'm not all that tired ether." Roxas said to him. There was a long stretch of silence after their short conversation, until Axel broke it again.

"So what's the relationship between you two?" Axel asked. Roxas looked down at Namine resting her head on his lap, breathing softly. Then gently moved a lock of her hair away from her face.

"She's my friend." He said simply.

"Is that all?" Axel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Is there something more than a friend?" Roxas asked.

"There's always something more, and it looks like you two have more than you obviously realize." Axel said and then he continued looking out of the window.

Roxas looked back down at Namine, thinking about what Axel just said.

……………………

"Hey, wake up, we're here." Namine heard Roxas' voice say. She also felt fingers running through her hair and when she opened her eyes she saw Roxas' bright blue eyes looking down into hers. She yawned and stretched, then got up and smoothed out her hair before grabbing her things and following Roxas and Axel out of the train and onto the platform.

"So here we are, Traverse Town. Now were are you two heading?" Axel asked as he looked around. The first district of Travers Town had a lot of brick buildings and cobblestone streets. It had a very medieval-ish feeling to it.

"Not quite sure, where's a directory around here?" Namine said as she began looking around for any sort of map.

When they couldn't find one they started to look for a shop they could go into and ask for directions. But as they seemed lost even trying to find a shop, a man with brown hair and a scar running diagonally between his eyes walked out from the shadows and approached them.

"You three look new around here, and lost." The man said.

"Oh, we didn't see you there. Yes, we are a little lost. Can you tell us were we can rent a room?" Namine asked the strange man.

"Of course, there is a hotel in second district which is just behind this accessory shop here. But you had better watch yourselves in any of the other districts besides this one." The man said.

"How come?" Roxas asked him.

"Because a few heartless have gotten through the town's defensive walls. We're doing our best to eliminate them, but they keep finding a way through. If this problem can't be solved then the town will have to be evacuated. But try not to let that ruin your stay. I'm Leon by the way, head of this town's defense force." Leon said as he extended a hand to them all. They thanked him for his directions and warning and then went separate ways.

"Hey you two, why not see a bit of the town before we go find the hotel?" Namine asked, she wanted to see what was in this town.

"A little sight seeing? Sure why not, this place looks interesting." Axel said as he looked around.

"Well I'm kind of hungry, what about you guys?" Namine asked as she turned to them both.

"Food sounds good." Roxas said.

"Oh good your hungry of once too! I think I see a restaurant over there, let's go." Namine said with a big smile and they all headed over.

All three of them sat down at an outside table and were quickly served. They all got the same thing: pancakes. Roxas liked them so much he got three servings. Axel preferred the coffee.

The next stop they made was at an accessory shop and creatures called Moogles ran it. Namine obsessed over how cute the Moogles were and how pretty the necklaces and rings they made were.

"Oh, this one is so awesome! But I have to save my munny…" Namine said.

"You like that one so much?" Axel asked as he walked up behind her.

"Yeah, but I can't go blowing my munny on everything I think is pretty. I have to save it for renting a room and other necessities."

"Well I think I could get it for you." Axel offered.

"That's really kind of you, but I don't want you wasting your munny on me ether Axel."

"Oh believe me, I have enough." Axel said and got the necklace for her before she could say another word. It was a small blue crystal in the shape of a heart and attached to a thin silver chain.

"I can't thank you enough Axel." Namine said and gave him a quick hug. But just like Roxas, Axel didn't seem to be too sure of what she was doing, but he didn't stop her.

When the three of them got outside and saw the time on the big clock tower in second district, they were surprised at the time.

"Oh wow, it's already so late, that train ride must have taken longer than I expected." Namine said.

"Or maybe the time flew by in all of those shops during our 'sight seeing'." Axel said to her. Namine just chose to ignore him.

"Let's find that hotel Leon told us about." Roxas said.

They soon found second district. It seemed much larger than first district and it had two levels. They were on the top and from it Namine spotted the hotel.

"I see it, it's over there to the left." She said as they began walking down the street towards it. But halfway over to the hotel, something jumped from off of the roof of the building beside them, and then two more figures followed the first.

"What are those?" Namine asked in a rushed voice.

"They're heartless, get behind me – now!" Axel said as he jumped in front of Namine and Roxas. The three heartless that had appeared were just shadows, small black colored with yellow eyes and antennas. Completely harmless alone, but in groups they can be very dangerous. Just as Axel was about to charge at them, Roxas went running past him at the heartless.

"Roxas no, get back here!" Axel called out as he made a futile attempt to grab him as he ran passed.

The one in front leaped at Roxas and he kicked it into the wall to the left, and like the Dusks it seemed to shatter into black dust and smoke. Then a second shadow leapt at him, and Roxas just backhanded it over the wall and it fell to the first level, turning into black smoke as it hit the ground. He turned to the last shadow heartless, but it just sunk into the ground and ran away. Roxas just stood there with his back to Axel and Namine, slightly hunched over. Then Axel approached him.

"Nice moves there buddy, now lets get out of here before more show up." And as Axel finished his sentence, he placed a hand on Roxas' shoulder. And soon as his hand touched Roxas he turned around and tackled Axel to the ground with lightning speed, pinning him by his shoulders.

"Roxas, what are you doing?" Namine said with a worried voice. Just as she said that, Roxas looked up at her. Namine gasped at what she saw, Roxas' eyes were glowing yellow and there seemed to be black smoke slowly rising from his hands, shoulders and hair. His face was expressionless.

Roxas stared at her for a moment before slowly backing away and letting Axel up, then he was grabbing his head and fell to his knees, making all sorts of growling and painful noises.

"Roxas!" Namine said and before she ran over to him, Axel stopped her.

"No, don't go near him yet. Let him come out of whatever state he's in before you approach him unless you want him doing to you what he almost did to me." Axel warned her. All Namine could do was watch him in horror, watching him in pain like that made Namine feel sick.

When Roxas finally let go of his head and slid down the wall and was breathing heavily on the ground, Axel let Namine approach Roxas. Namine knelt down beside him and he slowly looked up at her. She was glad to see his blue eyes again, she smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his neck and gently hugged him.

"It's all over, your ok now." She whispered to him. Axel walked over to them and helped Roxas up. He couldn't stand too well on his own so Axel gave him a piggyback ride to the hotel. Axel paid for the room but there were only two beds in the room. The problem was quickly solved though, Namine would share one bed with Roxas and Axel got one all to himself.

Roxas didn't say anything since the heartless incident, so Namine just put him to bed. Axel however went out on the small balcony overlooking a back alley. As he made sure the door was firmly closed behind him, Axel made a call.

………………

"Master Ansem, Axel is sending us a message." Riku said as he turned on the monitor to the computer.

"Good, good, I was getting a little worried." Ansem said as he made his way over to the computer and sat down in front of it.

"Ansem do I have news for you." Axel said.

"I'm listening."

"Roxas encountered his first heartless."

"'Roxas'?" Ansem said.

"Roxas is the name experiment 13 acquired sir." Riku explained to him.

"Ah I see, and who named it?" Ansem asked.

"The girl he's always with, Namine." Riku said to him.

"Anyway, after he defeated them, he turned on me. If that girl hadn't of said something I think Roxas would have taken my face off." Axel said through the small receiver in is hand.

"I programmed it to eliminate heartless on sight. A sort of switch goes off in its head that sets it into attack mode. You must have made contact with it before it came to the conclusion that all the heartless around it were destroyed." Ansem said.

"So Roxas will keep attacking whatever is around him until he no longer finds them a threat?" Axel asked.

"That's just about right, yes." Ansem said to the computer.

"Well how can he judge alley from foe?" Asked Axel.

"While it was still being educated in the pod here in the lab, I had images imprinted in its mind of every known heartless and if seen it will trigger 13's attack mode. I wanted to test it before he was ready for deployment; because it seems to me that it's attack mode is more of a berserk mode. And I don't like that one bit." Ansem explained.

"What's the difference?" Riku asked.

"If it was in attack mode, it would easily come out of that mode without a problem and without harming any of our soldiers. In berserk mode, it could go into an overkill mode and never come out if its attack mode, destroying everything in sight. And I wont have my ultimate weapon turned against me. I've worked too hard and to long for something like this to happen." Ansem said with growing anger in his voice.

"So what is it you want me to do?" Axel asked.

"I'll have the Creepers ready for you, they will be released tomorrow and they will seek you out. And when they find you they will stay hidden from 13's sight just like Riku's Dusks did. They will be there for you if anything else like what happened today occurs again. I've heard of Traverse Town's state, the numbers of heartless are rising and I can promise you 13 will encounter more if you stay there much longer. As soon as Riku and the Dusks join you I'll have plan B ready for you." Ansem explained.

"Understood, I'll just keep my eye on them until then." Axel said and ended his transmission and walked back into the room.

When he got back in the warm hotel room, he saw Namine and Roxas wrapped up in their bed. Namine had wrapped herself around Roxas, her arms around his neck and his head in the crook of her neck and shoulder, both of them fast asleep. Axel took a good look at them and it made him wonder what would cause Namine to care so much about Roxas. And in a since, it made him feel lonely.

* * *

Chapter six end!

It seems Namine and Roxas are getting closer :3

And now that they've made their big escape, what are they gonna do?

When Riku gets to Traverse Town, what will Ansem have planed?


	7. The New Plan

**Damn, I'm really sorry for that long wait! I hope it was worth it.**

Chapter 7: The New Plan

* * *

Rays of light were shining through the drapes that half covered the window to the balcony, and shined on Namine's face as she lay asleep curled beside Roxas. When she awoke, she slowly sat up and looked about the room, for a moment forgetting why she was there. She then remembered all that had happened the night before, the heartless attack and Roxas' extremely vicious reaction.

She then noticed that Axel was nowhere to be seen, she got up and looked around for him. He was no where to be found when Namine saw a note left on the table that read:

_Namine and Roxas,_

_I've gone out to get a few things, I should be back later today. I left you two some munny if you get hungry while I'm gone._

_Axel_

After reading the note she went back to check on Roxas only to find him still asleep. She smiled to herself and crawled back onto the bed and over beside him and began to run her fingers through his hair, having fun watching it spring back into place whenever she tried to get it to lay flat against his head. She was doing this for about a good five minutes before Roxas suddenly sat up and rolled on top of Namine and held her down against the bed, taking her completely by surprise.

"Morning." Was all he said to her, not letting her up.

"Roxas, you scared me so badly! You jerk!" She said playfully as she tried to get out from under him but was failing horribly.

"What? You want up?" He asked as he cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy.

"Nope, I'm really quite comfy down here actually." Namine said with sarcasm.

"Good, because I still feel sleepy." He said as he laid down on top of her.

"No, no! Get off!" She said as she laughed. When he didn't so much as budge, she began to tickle his sides and he jerked up faster than he had rolled over on her, he had jerked so bad that he had actually fallen off the bed with a 'thump'.

"See? You should have just gotten off." Namine said as she looked down at him from the bed resting her head on one hand.

"I'll remember that next time." He said as he just stayed sprawled out on the floor. "Hey, where is Axel?"

"He left a note saying he had gone out and will be back later. He also left us some munny for food." Namine filled him in.

"Well I don't want to stay in here all day waiting for him, lets go out somewhere." Roxas said as he got up and sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"Aren't we just full of life today?" Namine said as she sat up too.

"I'm just happy to have this feeling of freedom."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. So where should we go?"

"Not sure, lets just do some more wandering around, we're bound to find some fun places to be." Roxas said, they both then got ready to go explore the town some more.

The first stop they made was at a breakfast place in first district and they made their way through all the shops there too, only window-shopping of course. Then they headed back thought second district, being careful to avoid any more encounters with the heartless. They had fun looking though all the strange shops in that district too and before they knew it, they were hungry for lunch. They day was just flying by.

As the sun was beginning to set, the street lights and lights coming from store windows were lighting the town up. Roxas and Namine found themselves in the third district of Traverse Town at this time. And it was completely deserted.

"Oh wow Roxas, look at this fountain." Namine said as she walked up to a golden fountain in the corner with a statue of two dogs touching noses.

"It's very brightly lit." He observed.

"Don't you think those dogs are cute together like that?" She asked as she got a little closer to him.

"'Dogs'? They're just stone." He said simply.

"Sure." She said, disappointment could be heard in her voice.

"It's starting to get late and I bet Axel is back by now. Lets start to head back to the hotel." Roxas said and they both turned from the fountain and walked up to the big doors that lead to the second district. But before they could leave third district, a huge group of shadow heartless appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Roxas and Namine. There was about twenty of them.

"Oh no, not again!" Namine said as she looked over at Roxas.

He jumped in front of her and leapt at the first heartless, taking it out in his usual fashion. He would take one heartless and hurl it at another or just throw them into a wall. The more heartless he took out, the brighter his eyes glowed yellow and the darker the aura around him became.

When half of them were destroyed, Dusks and Creepers came jumping down from the rooftops and attacked the remaining heartless along side Roxas. Namine felt helpless standing off to the sides but what could she do? Roxas only targeted the heartless, he never once took a swipe at the Dusks or Creepers. Maybe it was because they appeared to be helping him? Or maybe it was because he is only designed to attack heartless with such passion.

The remaining heartless were quickly vanquished with the help of the Dusks and Creepers, and after all the heartless were gone Namine ran over to Roxas, not caring what he might do to her in the state of mind he was in now. He saw her approaching him and heard her saying his name and it caused him to fall to his knees and grab his head in pain again. But with her by his side, he quickly pulled out of it.

"Your ok now Roxas, they're all gone, come on now, we have to leave." She said with urgency.

"I think not. You, back away from him now. I have no intention of hurting you." Said Riku. The Dusks and Creepers were slowly surrounding them.

"Not you again! Why can't you just leave us alone?" She shouted at him as she was helping Roxas stand.

"All I want is him, I have no business with you, or you with me. You have no reason to be involved with him, so please, step aside." He said to her.

"I have every reason to be involved with him, you're the one who needs to step aside." Namine said with fire in her voice.

"Believe me, this boy is not healthy to be around, it is for your best interest that you leave him to me and go home."

"I'll never leave him behind."

"Fine, I see that you're not thinking clearly. It doesn't matter if you give him up or protect him, in the end he will be coming with me." Riku said as he began to walk forward, followed by the Dusks and Creepers.

Then all of the lights in third district began to flicker and go out, soon the whole plaza was dark, the only light coming from the stars and moon. And something very large had appeared in the center of the district.

"What, what's going on here? What's out there?" Riku said as he looked around.

Roxas suddenly turned around to face the center of the plaza, he knew exactly what stood there. He faced Namine and whispered to her, "You need to hide, now." And he took off before she could say anything.

Riku took out a flashlight and shined it on the creature in the center of the plaza. He was stricken with shock at what he saw.

"It's, it's the Guard Armor!" He said aloud to himself. The Guard Armor was a giant heartless, all of it's limbs seemed to move independently from it's purple colored metal body, it had large feet and big claws. Riku sent all of the Dusks and Creepers to attack it instead of Roxas. But they proved to be just a small distraction to the giant beast.

The Guard Armor was truly the leader of the heartless in Traverse Town, because it summoned ten Neoshadows, which were just bigger and stronger versions of the shadows. Those were what Roxas was dealing with as the Dusks and Creepers fought a futile war against the Guard Armor. Not too long into the battle, Roxas sensed the presence of someone else. He looked around to see Axel running down to the plaza, and he had some odd things with him.

"Roxas! What a mess I found you in. Here, these should make things easier." Axel said as he handed him two odd looking swords in the shape of keys. One had a black coloration and the other white. He took them and almost instinctively knew what to do with them.

Axel had weapons of his own as well, spiked disk like weapons that he spun and threw though the air and then returned to him like boomerangs. Axel took care of the remaining Neoshadows while Roxas began attacking the Guard Armor. Roxas had one of the Guard Armors arms destroyed when he looked over to check on Axel, and he saw that he had been over run by the Neoshadows. He left the Guard Armor to help Axel.

"Hey, don't you have something else to be worrying about over there?" Axel said in between breaths of air, the constant fighting was draining him of energy fast.

"That can wait a moment, you need help." Roxas said simply.

"But I'm not your concern, get back to what your supposed to be doing."

"I say what is and isn't my concern, and I don't _have_ to do anything." Roxas said as he began taking out the heartless with his newly gained weapons. After Axel had been helped, Roxas got back to attacking the Guard Armor. He successfully destroyed the other arm when Axel suddenly jumped in.

"This guy giving you trouble?" Axel asked, twirling his weapons above his head.

"It's nothing I can't handle."

"I see, taking all the fun aren't we?"

Then they both finished the Guard Armor together. As it disappeared, so did the remaining heartless it commanded. Roxas and Axel caught their breath after the fight was over and smiled at each other. But their victory didn't last long, the Dusks and Creepers were quick to surround them.

"You truly are the weapon to end this war, Roxas. Now please, this chase has lasted long enough, come with me. I don't understand why you continue to run away from me." Riku said as he approached him.

"Stop trying to make me think you're my friend. I know exactly what you have planed for me." Roxas said, pointing the black key at Riku. As the Dusks and Creepers began to close in, Roxas made a run for it, going right past Axel.

"Grab him you fool!" Riku said to Axel. He then focused on Roxas and caught him by the arm as he ran past.

"Hey! What are you doing Axel? Let go of me, we have to get out of here!" Roxas said as he looked him in the eyes. For a moment Axel's green eyes just stared back into Roxas' blue ones, then he came to a decision.

"Take Namine and go through that door there, it will take you directly to first district. Get on the next train, I'll be there. Go!" Axel said and then let go of his arm. Roxas took off towards Namine and took her with him to first district.

"What happened? What do you think you are doing?" Riku said as he turned on Axel, he sent the Dusks and Creepers on him.

"I was protecting my _friend_." Axel said as he fought off all the creatures Riku sent at him and took off towards first district himself to meet up with Namine and Roxas at the train station.

"No! Damn…Diz really isn't going to be happy now…"

………………….

"Are we ever going to stop being chased by that man and those creatures? It seems to me that there are more of them each time we see him." Namine said as she took a seat on the train.

"We just have to find a place where he can't ever find us again." Roxas said as he looked out the window.

"Hey you two, I'm back. Miss me?" Axel said as he made his way onto the train.

"So you lost him?" Roxas asked.

"Yep, I don't think he saw me get on the train."

"That's good, but now where are we heading this time?" Namine asked.

"This train will take you to Hollow Bastion." Said a voice from the other end of the train car. They all looked over to see Leon walking towards him.

"Hello again Leon!" Namine greeted him.

"And hello to you three. I wanted to talk to you earlier, but you ran off in quite a hurry."

"Yeah, we were in kind of a rush." Namine said to him.

"I saw you two destroy the Guard Armor. How did you do that with such ease? Not even my best men could have done that, and with those Neoshadows around too." Leon said in awe.

"Good weapons and strategy was all." Axel said.

"Well then, I'll keep that in mind. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because by destroying that Guard Armor you eradicated all the heartless from the area, saving the town. Thank you." Leon said, extending his hand to them both, but only Axel shook his hand.

"So why are you on this train Leon?" Namine asked.

"Because I have another station in Hollow Bastion. The heartless problem is overwhelming there. I have my best men there, helping fend them off, but we can't keep this up forever, we need a plan that works already." Leon said with frustration.

"So your telling me that we're leaving this town just to go to an even more dangerous one?" Axel said.

"Hey, you wanted to lose that black coat guy right? We had no choice." Namine said to Axel.

"A man in a black coat?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, we're being chased by that guy. He wont leave us alone." Namine said.

"Well if you see him in Hollow Bastion, let me know. I'll be all over it." Leon told them.

"I'll be sure to." Axel said with half enthusiasm as he took a seat on the train as it began to move.

………………

"Are you certain Axel let it get away?" Said Diz's voice from Riku's communicator.

"Yes, unfortunately."

"This is getting ridiculous, and we're running out of time." Diz was growing increasingly frustrated with the whole situation.

"Well I'm out of ideas sir, this 'sneaking up on him' strategy isn't working."

"And force wont work ether, that I know for certain."

"What do you want to do then?"

Diz sighed and waited a moment before answering. "We will have to capture the girl."

"What!"

"I know, I know, I don't like this plan ether. But I'm at a lost for what else to do. And it's not like the plan will be hazardous to her in anyway."

"What will capturing the girl do?" Riku was confused as to what Diz was getting at.

"You've seen how it will go to any length to protect her. If we manage to kidnap her and agree to release her unharmed only if it returns to me without a fight, it might just work out."

"But we wouldn't harm her under any circumstance right? Even if Roxas didn't come?" Riku asked, worried for Namine's safety.

"Of course not, I would never hurt the innocent. This is just a lie to get our experiment back."

"…Ok sir, I'll do it." Riku said reluctantly.

"It's best if you do so when both experiments are asleep. I fear Axel will protect the girl too since it has already protected the other one."

……………………

"Where did you get these Axel?" Roxas asked as he held up the two key shaped swords.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. But I can tell you what they're called. Keyblades. That black one is Oblivion and the white one is Oathkeeper. They symbolize light and dark. One should not be used without the other." Axel said to him.

Roxas looked at them both, with a little more admiration this time. Then he looked over to Namine who was asleep on the bench seating with her head resting on Roxas' lap just like the last train ride, this would be an all-nighter ride. Leon had left for another train car.

"Thanks." Roxas said out of the blue.

"Hu? For what?" Axel said, confused.

"For staying with us for this long, and helping us out so much. We couldn't have gotten this far without you. Thanks."

"It's no problem little buddy."

They sat the rest of the train ride in silence.

* * *

Chapter seven end!

I hope you all know that the Guard Armor is the first heartless boss you fight with Donald and Goofy in the first game. Just checking.

And so Roxas and Axel got their weapons finally, but it makes you wonder where Axel got them from in the first place hu? Where exactly was he all that day?

And so now the gang is headed for Hollow Bastion. Just how bad is the heartless problem there? You'll find out soon enough.


	8. Hollow Bastion

Chapter 8: Hollow Bastion

* * *

The train rolled to a stop and the doors opened to let the passengers out onto the platform. Axel stood up and stretched then walked over to where Roxas was sitting with Namine's head resting on his lap. He gently shook his shoulder to snap him out of his little catnap.

"Hey, we're finally here, let's get going." Axel said. Roxas looked up at him then down at Namine, who was still sleeping. He in turn nudged her gently awake and all three of them left the train.

They very first thing they noticed was how terrible the town looked. Just about all of the buildings were heavily damaged with chunks of wall or roof missing. Certain places in the walls surrounding the town were broken apart and the streets had a lot of deep potholes. It looked as if it there had recently been a large battle here.

"Is this…Hollow Bastion…?" Namine asked aloud as she looked around the marketplace they were in.

"Unfortunately, yes. It looks even worse since I was last here." Said Leon as he got off the train and approached the group. "Is it alright with you three if I asked you to come with me?"

They all looked at each other for a moment before Axel answered, "Sure."

Leon led them through the marketplace and into a different part of town called the borough, which looked nearly as bad as the marketplace had. There were only a few houses and there was no one to be seen, they were most likely all in the houses hiding from whatever it was that lurked in this town. Leon finally led them all to what seemed nothing more than a door in the wall, but once he opened it, it reviled a rather large room and a few people were occupying it.

"This is the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee's headquarters." Leon said to them all as he welcomed them in. "This is Cid, he's in charge of our town's defense system." Leon said. Cid looked to be a man in his late 30's, he had short blond hair with goggles on top of his head and a long toothpick sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

"And it's down again as usual, I gave a warning to the town to stay inside till it's back up and running." Cid said as he slammed a fist down on the keyboard in frustration.

"I'm Yuffie, it's nice to meet you three!" Said a girl that looked to be a few years older than Roxas and Namine. She also seemed to have enough energy to keep the whole Restoration Committee going all by herself.

"Hi Yuffie, I'm Namine."

"Axel's the name."

"…"

Namine gave Roxas a soft but firm smack on the back of his head. "This is Roxas. Forgive him, he's not good with these sorts of things."

"That's quite alright, I'm Merlin by the way." Said an elderly man in a long blue robe with a very long white beard.

"And I'm Aerith, it's so nice to meet you and to see you all unharmed." Said a kind voiced woman dressed in a pink and red dress with long brown hair tied back in braids. After they were all introduced, Leon got a phone call.

"Yes…I understand, I'll be there shortly." Leon said then hung up. "I'm needed at the bailey, Axel and Roxas, would you two come with me?" Leon asked.

"What about me?" Namine asked, feeling left out.

"Would you mind staying here? We wont be long I promise." Leon said to her.

"Sure, I guess." Namine said, a little depressed.

"Ok, let's head out." Leon said and walked towards the door.

"Hey, I'm coming too." Yuffie said as she followed them all out of the door.

"Fine, just stay in line this time?" Leon said to her as if she were a troublesome child he had to watch. Leon led them all to the bailey and there Axel and Roxas were introduced to a few more people, rather odd looking people too.

"Axel, Roxas, this is Cloud, Auron, Donald and Goofy. My best men in this fight against the heartless." Leon said. Roxas could have sworn he heard the name 'Cloud' before, but couldn't quite remember.

The man known as Cloud had hair similar to Roxas' but even more spiky, and his clothing was all black. Auron looked the oldest in the group. He wore a long red colored robe with one arm resting inside. He also had a scar over his right eye so only his left was good. Then there was Donald and Goofy who both looked unworldly; Donald appeared to be a white cartoonish duck and Goofy a tall black cartoonish hound.

"Leon, we need you to take a look at this." Auron said as he motioned to a window overlooking the outskirts of town. Leon couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"How…how did they grow in such numbers in such a short amount of time?" Leon said in awe and horror.

"That's what we want to know. But the big problem now is that more of them are getting into the town, there have been deaths Leon. Something needs to be done, now." Cloud said as he walked next to Leon to look out at the horrific amount of heartless that had gathered far out in the canyons outside of the town.

"Whoa, that looks like a sea of black and purple!" Axel said as he too looked out of the window. Roxas came over too and when he saw it he was instantly filled with rage and his eyes began to glow yellow again. Axel noticed this right away. "Uh, we gotta go." Axel said in a hurry as he took Roxas by the shoulders and pulled him away from the window.

"Come on everyone, let's head back to HQ." Leon said and they all followed him out of the bailey.

When they all got back to HQ Leon explained the situation to everyone there. And the first thing Roxas did was look around for Namine and he saw her napping on a spare bed, the train ride apparently wasn't enough rest for her. He went over and sat down on the edge of her bed.

Cloud's eyes followed him over to where Namine was napping and his eyes widened with what looked like shock. "Namine?" He said, and then walked over to her bed. But when he got too close however, Roxas stood up and blocked his path.

"What do you want?" Roxas said with aggression in his voice.

"Is that Namine?" Cloud asked with a calm voice.

"Why do you need to know?" Roxas said back.

"What's going on over here?" Leon said as he walked over, sensing trouble.

"I need to know if this girl is Namine." Cloud said.

"From my understanding, yes she is." Leon told him. Roxas just glared at Leon, as if he had just leaked precious information. Just then Namine woke up and looked up to see Cloud, and she couldn't have looked more petrified.

"C-Cloud! What are you doing here?" Namine asked, very shocked and flustered.

"This is my current station, the question is, what are _you_ doing here?" Cloud said.

"I…I'm just traveling with friends."

"Tifa is worried sick about you. Why did you run off like that?" Cloud asked, ignoring what she had just said. Suddenly Roxas remembered where he had heard the name 'Cloud' before, Cloud was the man Tifa was seeing, so he must obviously know Namine well.

"I ran off because…because…" Namine stuttered, not able to come up with a good reason.

"I'm taking you back with me tomorrow." Cloud said simply.

"No you can't! I have to stay with Axel and Roxas! Besides, they're taking very good care of me, and Axel is a legal age to be watching us." Namine said in desperation.

"You ran away, you never got permission from Tifa to leave, therefore your coming back with me tomorrow." Cloud said to her.

"Hold on, what if I talked to Tifa? Ya know, tell her the situation?" Axel said as he overheard the conversation.

"No, I want to call her, she's my mom after all. I'm sure she will understand once I tell her what's going on." Namine said, so Leon brought her a phone.

"…_Hello?_" Said the other end of the line.

"Uh, hi mom."

"_Namine! Where on Earth are you!"_

"I'm in Hollow Bastion, Cloud is here."

"_Cloud? Cloud found you?_"

"Well I actually found him. Mom, I'm sorry I only left you a note saying that I left, but I want you to know I'm safe. But I can't come home just yet."

"_Well why not? Why did you leave in the first place? Oh, just put Cloud on the phone._" And with that Namine sighed and handed the phone over to Cloud.

"…Uh-hu, sure thing. See you then." And Cloud hung up.

"Well?" Axel asked.

"Tifa is coming to get Namine." Cloud said.

"What! No she can't!" Namine said.

"She's asked me to watch you till then, so don't be pulling anything around me. The ride over here will be at least two and a half days for her. Don't make her come all this way just to find you've run off again." Cloud said.

Namine looked down at her feet, feeling defeated. Roxas took a seat next to her, not saying anything. Axel and Cloud walked off but Leon stayed.

"Well, I didn't know I was housing runaways." Leon said, trying to lighten things up.

"Sorry to cause you trouble." Namine said, still looking down.

"Oh no, your no trouble at all, if you want to see trouble, go talk to Yuffie."

"Hey I heard that Leon!" Yuffie called from across the room. That got Namine to giggle a little.

The rest of the day went slowly, because they all had to stay inside HQ until the security defenses were up and running. As the day progressed, Leon looked more and more stressed. He then asked to talk to Axel and Roxas.

"I hate to ask this of you two, but seeing what you can do by destroying that Guard Armor the other day I wanted to ask if you would join me in protecting this town as well." Leon asked.

Axel and Roxas thought about his offer for a moment, then Axel said, "Let us just talk this over before we give you an answer."

"Certainly."

Axel took Roxas over to an empty corner of the large room where they could not be overheard. "So, what do you think?" Axel asked.

"I don't know. Something in me really wants to help these people, but at the same time I want to keep moving. The longer we stay here the more likely Riku is to find us again." Roxas said.

"Yeah, I see your point."

"But what do you want to do?"

"I think I'm in the same dilemma you are. I want to help, but I want to get my ass out of here too. So why don't we just help for a little bit then get out?" Axel proposed.

"But Namine's mother will be here in about two days."

"Oh yeah, there's that. Ok, we can help for only one day. So what should we tell Leon?"

"We'll tell him we will help, but leave out that it will be for only one day." Roxas said to him.

"Alright, I'll go and tell him." And Axel went off to tell Leon their answer. Roxas went over to Namine who was still sitting on the spare bed.

"Hey." Was all Roxas said as he sat down next to her.

"Hey…" She said and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder.

They sat like that for a while before Namine spoke again. "I heard what you, Axel and Leon were talking about."

"You did?"

"Your not going to get involved in that are you?"

"…"

"Are you?" She said with a little force.

"…Yes, but only for a day. We plan to leave before Riku finds us or your mother gets here. Unless of course…you want to go home. I won't stop you."

"Of course I don't want to go home, at least not yet. I told you I'd never leave you behind, and I meant it."

"And I promise to never leave you behind ether."

"You better mean that." Namine said and she gave him a tight hug.

……………

"They're in Hollow Bastion sir." Riku said to the communication device.

"Really? They couldn't be more vulnerable there." Diz said.

"How so?"

"The King isn't the only one with power over the armies in Hollow Bastion. I can easily have them restrain all three of those runaways until you get there with reinforcements. And I can have that done without question." Diz explained.

"One problem, communication is down for Hollow Bastion at the moment. They can't be reached." Riku told him.

"So I've heard. But I can have you meet with Leon, and tell him what's going on. I think it will be necessary for you to tell him what those experiments are and how dangerous they can be so he can take the proper measures to keep his men safe."

"That sounds like it will work to me. But how will I meet with Leon without being seen by Axel or Roxas?"

"That I'm afraid I will have to leave up to you."

"And then there's the matter of how Axel retrieved the chakrams and keyblades. I thought they were secured in your laboratory." Riku brought up.

"As did I, but it appears that he took the train back to Twilight Town the first night they were in Traverse Town. He knows my lab well enough to have slipped in here and made off with them without my notice. If he left early enough in the morning he would have been able to be back in Traverse Town at the time he was. And it also explains why I can no longer react him on his communicator, me must have ether deactivated it or destroyed it." Diz explained.

"I'm getting on the train now sir, I'll be in Hollow Bastion by morning."

……………

That night things were surprisingly quiet for a town under attack by heartless. All the beds were filled with sleeping bodies, well; almost all of them were asleep anyway. Axel lay on his back staring at the ceiling with boredom, not feeling at all sleepy. Roxas too was wide-awake, but unlike Axel he was wandering around HQ.

In the silence of the room, Roxas could hear the faint sounds of someone trying to keep their crying quiet. He sought out the source to find it was Namine crying into her pillow. The sight filled him with a feeling he never felt before: sympathy. He quietly walked over to the bed and crawled over to her and without knowing why the urge came over him, he carefully pulled her to him. She dropped the pillow and was now using his chest to quietly cry into.

"What's causing you so much pain?" Roxas finally asked.

"I don't want you fighting those heartless." She said in between her crying.

"I'll be fine, you know that."

"Yeah, well things happen…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Unexpected things happen all of the time. You may have a flawless plan but bad things always manage to happen…"

"Not to me they don't."

"Well they've happened to me…" Namine said in a very quiet voice.

"I won't let anything bad ever happen to you, I promise." And he held her closer.

"Do you know why Tifa is my legal guardian?" Namine asked suddenly.

"Because your parents aren't around anymore. Right?"

"Do you know why they aren't around anymore?" She asked.

"No…" Roxas realized he had never known what became of her parents.

"They were a part of this war. They were in a town not too far from here. A group of heartless that could fly came in and began dropping bombs on the town, everyone was ordered to leave, but a lot of soldiers didn't get out. A few of those solders were my parents. They were left behind, left behind to die." Namine didn't look up at Roxas the whole time she told her story.

"And that's why I don't want you to fight in this war," she continued, "I don't want to lose someone else I care about to this stupid war." She began to cry again.

Roxas just continued to hold her. He wished like hell he could tell her what his only purpose in life was: to end the war then be destroyed. But he just couldn't bring himself to shatter what he had with her. With her he felt like he was just a normal human like everyone else in the room because that's how she viewed him.

And now look at what he's done, he let her get so attached to him that it will break her to know what he is and what his fate is. Now he was mad at himself, because even if she didn't know it, he was hurting her like no one else in this world could. As they sat there in their own little world that was falling in all around them, a very loud alarm began to go off followed by flashing red lights coming from the ceiling.

"Everyone, to your stations!" Leon called out.

"What's going on?" Axel demanded to know.

"The walls have been breached again, heartless are attacking the town. We need to counterattack now!" Leon said very quickly.

Cid jumped to his computer and got a review of the town's current state and where the heartless were coming in from. Everyone else was getting dressed and grabbing their weapons.

"Axel, Roxas! Come with me! Time to show me what you can do." Leon said as he went out of the front door.

"Roxas!" Namine shouted out as he started to run for the door. He stopped and looked over to her from across the room. All he did was look at her with eyes that said how sorry he was before running after Axel and Leon.

Aerith made sure Namine didn't run off after the group as they all rushed outside. Once they were all outside, Leon gave them all their orders to where they were supposed to go. After is orders were given, they all ran off in groups to said area to fend off the invasion.

"You two, we're going to the bailey." Leon said to them, and the three of them took off. The fighting raged on for what seemed like an hour, and it seemed that for every one heartless they destroyed; two more took its place.

"Damn, pull back! We'll regroup at HQ." Leon called out to Axel and Roxas. Leon radioed the rest of his fighters the same message.

Back at HQ, everyone appeared very tired but eager to keep fighting.

"Leon, what should we do?" Yuffie asked, she too was tired and out of breath.

"I hate to say it, but we have to evacuate the town, immediately. Cid, make the announcement, get them all out of here by train." Leon told him.

"You got it." Cid held down a large button and spoke into a speaker. "_Attention residents of Hollow Bastion – please in an orderly fashion report to the train station to evacuate to Traverse Town. I repeat – head to the train station to evacuate to Traverse Town. Immediately." _Cid's voice echoed throughout the town.

"Donald, Goofy, could you two make sure all of the town's folk get out of here safely?" Leon asked.

"We're on it." Goofy said, and he and Donald left.

"When they get all of the town's folk out, we will get on the next train out of here ourselves." Leon said to them all.

"Well, so much for Hollow Bastion." Merlin said with a sigh.

"Hey, we did the best we could for this place. And who knows there might still be hope for it yet. If these damned heartless are ever completely eradicated from existence." Leon said.

The sun was almost about to rise when the last of the town's folk were loaded onto a train leaving the town. But the Restoration Committee would have to wait just a bit longer until the next train came into the station to take them all to Traverse Town.

Leon received a phone call, "Hello? Ok…we'll be there soon." And he hung up. "Ok everyone, the train is here, let's stay in a group and move out!"

Everyone gathered their things together and left in a tight group. They all had flashlights to light their way and walked in pairs through the shattered streets. The two in front were Leon and Cloud, behind them were Axel and Auron, then it was Roxas and Namine and behind them Yuffie and Aerith then in the very back was Cid and Merlin.

When they were all half way there, they all heard an extremely large explosion not too far from where they were.

"Whoa, what happened?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know, Auron, you're in charge till Cloud and I get back, we're going on head to check it out." Leon said as he and Cloud went on.

Auron kept his eye out for any sign of danger, as did everyone else. However, Roxas noticed an odd figure off in the distant corner of the dark road. He fixed his gaze on it until it moved again and out of sight, he thought his eyes were just playing tricks on him because that figure looked oddly similar too…

"I have some horrid news for you all." Leon said as he and Cloud returned.

"What would that be?" Cid asked from the back of the group.

"The train that came for us has been de-railed from the explosion…we're stuck here."

* * *

Chapter eight end!

Oh crap, what is the group gonna do now that they're all trapped in Hollow Bastion with the hordes of heartless?

And why would Axel go all that way just to steal those weapons? Is he really on Roxas' side or is he playing the double agent?

And what was the figure that Roxas saw?

You'll all find out soon enough.

Oh, and a message to all my reviewers:

_I love you_ :3


	9. Secrets Revealed

**It's been forever hu? Well here I am finally updating for all of you who are still interested in finding out what happens!**

**___________________**

**Recap of the end of the last chapter:**

_When they were all half way there, they all heard an extremely large explosion not too far from where they were._

"_Whoa, what happened?" Yuffie asked._

"_I don't know, Auron, you're in charge till Cloud and I get back, we're going on head to check it out." Leon said as he and Cloud went on._

_Auron kept his eye out for any sign of danger, as did everyone else. However, Roxas noticed an odd figure off in the distant corner of the dark road. He fixed his gaze on it until it moved again and out of sight, he thought his eyes were just playing tricks on him because that figure looked oddly similar too…_

"_I have some horrid news for you all." Leon said as he and Cloud returned._

"_What would that be?" Cid asked from the back of the group._

"_The train that came for us has been de-railed from the explosion…we're stuck here."_

____________________

"Let's just get back to HQ in the mean time." Leon said to the group as soon as Donald and Goofy got back from escorting the towns folk to the trains not too long ago.

Now back at headquarters, the group was all at a loss for what to do. With no way to communicate to any outside soldiers, there was little sign of hope. They locked themselves as tightly in headquarters as they possibly could, but it was only a matter of time until Hollow Bastion was so full of heartless of all kinds that they were able to find them and tear down the defenses and break in.

Leon, Cloud and Auron were with Cid on the computer, trying to reach someone, anyone, that could help them. The other ally armies were still unaware of the fact that the small Restoration Committee group had been left behind in Hollow Bastion, the evacuation happened too soon to have everyone accounted for just yet. But by the time anyone noticed they were missing would be too late unless they figured out a way to make contact with help.

"What a mess we got into huh?" Axel said as he was sitting with Roxas and Namine.

"Yeah, but I know we'll get out of it." Namine said with hope in her voice.

"I wish everyone in this Committee had your attitude, Leon and the others over there are a little down in spirit since the train was derailed." Yuffie said standing up with her arms folded across her chest.

"Well I agree with the lass, even though things are looking bad now, they always get better as long as you don't give up." Merlin said as he too came over to join the discussion.

Roxas just sat in silence next to Namine on her bed bunk, letting Merlin's words sink in. And just then a "Ya-ho!" was heard from Cid over at the computer. The group rushed over to him. "How do you like that? Ol' Cid got our communication back up!" He said in great self satisfaction.

"That's wonderful, now get a hold of someone before it goes down again!" Leon said with urgency.

"Yeah, yeah, no need to tell me that twice." Cid said as he typed away and got a hold of someone. And that someone just so happened to be King Mickey himself.

"Hello?" the King's voice came through the computer's speakers. The Restoration Committee cheered, happy to have made contact with someone, not to mention the King himself. He must have been in Traver's Town with the evacuees from Hollow Bastion.

"Yes! King Mickey, this is Leon and the rest of the Restoration Committee, we're still here in Hollow Bastion! The train that came for us has been de railed from a heartless bomb. We need help ASAP!" Leon said through the receiver.

"That's horrible! Hold on you guys, help is on the way, I'll send another train and some rescue soldiers, can you all be at the station in about three hours?" the King asked.

"We can try, but the heartless are still flooding the town, we don't know how much longer we can hold out. To be honest, I don't know if we can even hold out for another two hours." Leon said in desperation.

"Three hours is the soonest I can get any help to you all out there. Is there anything you can do to ensure your safety til then?" the King asked.

"Well...there is one option, but it's extremely risky..." Leon said deep in thought.

"And what would that be?" the King wanted to know.

"The only way to ensure our safety is to thin out the number of Heartless by the hundreds. The only way I can to that is rig explosives throughout the town and detonate them on a timer, which will destroy a greater portion of the town, but in here we'll all be safe from the explosion. Problem is we would need to send out people to rig up the explosives." Leon explained.

"Is that your only option captain?" King Mickey asked, obviously as hesitant to go with that plan as Leon was.

"I'm afraid so, if we're to survive for three more hours here."

"Then follow through captain, hopefully communication will stay up so I know how your all doing. I'll send the train no matter what though." King Mickie ensured them.

"Thank you my King." Leon said then turned to the Restoration Committee, "So you heard me you guys, I'll need a few of you to go out there with me to set up the explosives."

"I'll come with you." Axel said. "Explosives and fire are my thing." he said nonchalantly.

"I'll come too." Roxas said out of the blue.

"I don't know if I want to endanger a kid..." Leon said.

"You'll want me out there if you encounter any heartless." Roxas made a good point.

"Well you go me there, ok Roxas, your in too."

"And me as well." Auron said.

"Ok, I have my team, the rest of you keep this place safe, I'll knock five times to let you know it's us when we come back." Leon said to the group and began to gather the equipment and explosives.

Namine came up to Roxas, "Your really going to go out there?" she said in worry, knowing by now she couldn't stop him from doing anything his mind was set on.

"Yeah, I want a personal hand in destroying those creatures, I just..._hate _them so." Roxas said as he clenched his fists.

"Just promise you'll come back to me in one piece." Namine said as she wrapped her arms around his torso and gave him a good squeeze, and for the first time, he hugged her back.

"I promise." He said just loud enough for her to hear.

"Ok men, let's move and get this done as quickly as we can." Leon said and opened the door and got his small group of demolishers out and quickly shut the door behind him, to make sure no heartless came in while they came out.

"Ok, we'll do this in groups, since that'll be the safest way. I'll go with Auron and you Axel, go with Roxas. Here are your five explosives, go place them over on the east side, space them at least fifty yards apart. Then meet us back here in no more that ten minutes. The less time we spend out here the better. Here is a watch to make sure your on time, now go." Leon explained and took off with Auron to set up their five explosives on the opposite side of town.

"Come on Roxas, lets get a move on." Axel said and they both set off.

"You don't think we'll run into any heartless, do you Axel?" Roxas asked him, no fear was heard in his voice.

"The possibility of that is high, there are already at least a hundred running around this town right now. Lets not get ambushed shall we?" Axel said with a smile.

Axel handed Roxas two explosives to set in the bailey area, he wandered over to it with caution, keeping his eyes out for any heartless. He managed to set up one explosive without running into any, but just as he saw a spot to place the second one, he saw two Neoshadows just crawling around, sniffing the area. Roxas was glad he was down wind from them. But at the same time upon the sight of them filled Roxas with rage, having felt this so many times before, he was a little better at controlling it, and did his best to suppress it. He averted his gaze and choose a different spot to place the explosives.

He carefully and quietly made it back to Axel and they together made it back to Headquarters at the same time as Leon and Auron. Leon knocked the way he said he would and they were let back in.

"So how did it go?" Aerith asked as they all came back in through the door.

"Very well actually, we saw a lot of heartless, but they didn't see us." Leon informed them.

When Roxas came back in through the door behind Axel, the first thing he did was seek out Namine and when he saw her, he went directly to her. She jumped him and wrapped her arms around his neck when he reached her. The sudden acting surprised him, but by now he was used to this display from Namine, but not so passionately.

"So glad to see you and the other back, unharmed." She said as she let go of Roxas.

"Ok, these are timer detonated," Leon began to explain, "and I've sent them for a half hour...starting...now." Leon then clicked a red button on a black remote, the top of it started to blink red and beeped, letting them know the explosives were not activated. "The explosions shouldn't rattle us too badly, though it will feel like a small earthquake and it'll be really loud, but that's nothing your hands over your ears wont fix." Leon further informed them all.

Namine went back to her bed bunk with Roxas close behind. He always found himself absentmindedly following her around.

"I can't believe we got ourselves into such a mess! But now it's looking so much better, we'll be out of here in just a few hours!" Namine said with glee.

"Yeah, but where are we going to go after this? Cloud will make sure your found by Tifa. And that will most definitely let Riku know where we...oh no..." Roxas trailed off.

"Oh, we can always give Cloud the slip, there will be so much commotion when we get back to Traver's Town that -" but Roxas cut Namine off.

"No it's not that, I saw Riku out there when we were first going to the train before it got de railed, he must still be out there, he'll get killed in the explosion!" Roxas said in sudden realization, Axel had over heard them.

"Well if he does then he certainly wont be chasing us anymore and we'll be free." Axel said as if this were a good thing.

"I can't let him get killed like that!" Roxas said loudly.

"And why not? It's not like we can go out there now looking for him, there are heartless galore out there and in about 25 minutes time there will be a series of explosions going off. Besides, why would you want to risk your life for a guy who just wants to take you back to Ansem?" Axel said as reasoning for letting Riku die out there.

"Because he, wait, what did you say Axel...?" Roxas stopped to ask him, as far as Roxas knew, he was the only one who knew about Ansem.

Axel's smile faded and his face turned to a shocked expression. He looked over to Roxas.

"Now just hold on, there's a lot here that needs to be explained..." Axel said as he held up his hands in a submissive gesture as he slowly walked closer to Roxas who was still seated next to Namine.

"No, no you can't be...your with Riku and Ansem aren't you? Just like I thought in the beginning when I first met you in Twilight Town!" Roxas said and stood up and backed away from Axel.

Namine stood up too and went to Roxas' side and grabbed his hand, "Axel, is that true? And Roxas, who is Ansem?" Namine was really confused now. She wanted to know just how many people were after Roxas and who's side Axel was really on.

"Ansem...he's the cause for all of this. He the reason I'm even..." Roxas was about to tell Namine what she wanted to know before Leon cut him off, over hearing the conversation.

"'Ansem'? What's this talk about Ansem?" he asked as he walked up beside Axel.

"You know him too?" Namine asked in surprise.

"Well of course, he's the King's right hand man and best scientist. He's been working on an 'ultimate weapon' to end this war, and the King says he's almost ready to deploy it." Leon told her.

"So then why on Earth would he and Riku be chasing after you, Roxas?" Namine said as she looked him in the eyes. Roxas just looked panicked, he was feeling cornered again.

"Wait, Ansem is _chasing_ you? Just who are you kid?" Leon said, now highly curious and suspicious of Roxas now.

Seeing Roxas' state of panic rising, Axel changed the subject for him. "Leon, Roxas mentioned not too long ago that he remembers seeing a older boy wandering around out there when we were trying to get to the evacuation train to Traverse Town, is there any chance we could take a rescue squad out there to find him?" Axel asked.

"Well if that's true or not...we can't let anyone leave to go out to find him. There are way too many heartless out there now and the explosives will go off in about only 20 more minutes. No one is to leave. I'm sorry." Leon said.

While Axel was trying to persuade Leon, Roxas and Namine were having their own discussion.

"Roxas, this has gone on long enough, and you can tell me anything, you should know that. I'll never think any differently of you." Namine said, trying to get Roxas to open up to her more about why this all important 'Ansem' was chasing after him, and why Axel would have any involvement in it.

"Be careful of what you say...if you only knew what I was...you would never look at me the same way again." he said as he looked to the ground.

Namine placed her hand on the side of his face and made him look at her. Her touch made his eyes take on a softer look as he gazed back at her.

"Roxas...I could care less who or what you are. All that matters is who you are to me, that's who really are. Your not a monster, or anything of the sort." she said and slowly slid her hand down his face and then let her finger tips trace his jaw bone until they reached his chin and she let her hand fall. He caught it with both of his hands, and held it for a moment.

"Namine, ever since I meant you, you made me feel these strange - but wonderful - things in here." he said as he brought her hand to his chest and held it there, letting her feel the rhythmic beats of his heart. "When you make me feel this way, you make me forget what I am, and what's destined to become of me if I'm ever captured by Riku and taken back to Ansem. That's why...that's why I now know why I have to do what I was created for." Roxas said as he let go of her hand, but she kept it pressed against his chest even without his hands there to support it.

"Created for? Created for what?" Namine was even more confused now.

"I'm...Anesm's 'Ultimate Weapon'. I'm the one who was created to end this war." Roxas said just barely louder than a whisper for Namine to hear. She stood in front of him in silent shock. It was all starting to make sense to her, why he was able to lift her couch with ease, beat Seifer with inhuman actions, perform as a human calculator, and learn talents like playing the piano instantly and why he reacted like he did to the Heartless. Also why he had been so oblivious to social etiquette and how he hardly ever ate or slept.

"Why...why didn't you tell me sooner?" was all she could muster to say.

"I didn't...I didn't want you to be afraid of me. But I guess you are anyway, and you probably hate me now too..." Roxas said as he looked at the ground again. But to his surprise he felt Namine wrap her arms around him again.

"I could never, _never_, hate you. Or ever be afraid of you. Not now, not after all we've been through together. Sure it hasn't been long, but I feel a connection to you that I've never felt with any one else. Ever." she said with her face buried in his neck. After she said that, Roxas hugged her back, and it was a real hug too, not just a return 'happy to see you' hug.

"Nothing could ever mean more to me." he said and let go of her, and she let go too. "I need to go get Riku now, before it's too late."

"You have _better_ come back to me, you hear?" she said as more of a demand than a request.

He smiled to her and said, "I always do, don't I?" and took off and flew out of the door before anyone could stop him. Axel tried going off after him, but Leon wouldn't let anyone leave, even to go retrieve Roxas.

Roxas was running around everywhere he thought he might find Riku, and even though he knew it was a stupid idea, he was calling out his name as loud as he could everywhere he went. It was a wonder the heartless hadn't attacked him yet.

"Riku!!!" Roxas yelled one final time. He was so deep into the Town that he wasn't too sure he could go any farther and not get back to the safe house before the town blew.

He turned to go back and saw, yes, Riku walking out from an old abandoned church.

"Wait, are you actually seeking me out Roxas?" Riku said, he stopped about twenty yards from him, hesitant to get any closer.

"Yeah, I am. Riku, I know this is going to sound really weird, but your the one who needs to come with me. This whole town is going to blow in less than 15 minutes." Roxas told him.

"What? How do you know that?" Riku sounded like he believed him, but was still skeptical.

"Because I'm one of the people who set up the explosives and watch Leon push the timer detonation button. Now come with me, I'll lead you back to the safe house with the others." Roxas said and began to walk in the direction of the safe house when 50 plus heartless of all kinds began to appear out of the shadows and from behind buildings.

"Oh crap, off all the times!" Riku said and pulled out a wing shaped blue sword and ten Dusks appeared at his side, prepared to fight.

"No, there is no way we can defeat them all, not in less than fifteen minutes and make it back in time!" Roxas said as he got back to back with Riku. Roxas also had his Keyblades with him.

"Then what should we do? Make a run for it?" Riku said, he couldn't think of anything else.

"No, but I have an idea. You take the Dusks and head back to the safe house, I believe you know where it is if you really do watch my every move." Roxas said.

Riku gave a small chuckle, "Yeah, it's that brown wooden door in the wall near the shopping area right?" Riku said, remembering the place.

"That's be it, if you run the whole way there, you can make it." Roxas told him.

"And what about you? What are you going to do?" Riku was worried for him, he meant so much to master Ansem.

"I'll stay behind to detract them for a bit, don't worry, I can catch up. Just go!" Roxas told him and jumped at the heartless, both Keyblades swinging.

Riku couldn't argue with him and took off towards the safe house.

Everyone at headquarters was waiting with anticipation for a knock at the door, there were only five more minutes until the bombs went off. When things were looking bad, there was a sudden knocking on the door. Everyone was thrilled to hear it, but out of precaution Leon asked loudly, "Who is it? State your name!" to make sure it wasn't a heartless.

"I'm Riku! Please let me in!" was the answer from the other side of the door. Leon then opened it and let him in.

"Riku! Where is Roxas?" Namine said when she didn't see anyone following him in.

"He...stayed behind to slow down the heartless and give me a head start...he said...he'd catch up." Riku said in between gasps for air, he had done as Roxas said and ran the whole way here.

"Oh no! He's still out there?" Namine said in horror.

"Namine, this is Roxas we're talking about, he'll be back in the next minute, you'll see." Axel said to try to comfort her. Even though he didn't even believe himself when he said it.

"Four minutes left everyone, start to get ready!" Leon called out to everyone.

"But Roxas!" Namine said to him.

"I know, Namine. I'll stay by the door as long as I can to let him in if he can get here in time." Leon said to her. He knew it wasn't much of a comforting thing to say.

Tears started to appear in her eyes as she was losing hope. Aerith took her in her arms and lead her to the back of HQ to get ready for the explosions.

"Three minuets." Leon called out.

There was still no knock on the door...

"Two minutes!"

_'Roxas..please...'_

"One minute! Everyone get ready!" Leon said. He opened the door and took a quick scan of the area to see any signs of hope. Namine looked to him for an answer, but he shut the door and looked back to her with a sympathetic face. Then took his spot to prepare for the blast. Leon looked at his remote detonator and read off the seconds.

"3...2...1..."

The series of explosions were epic. Everything in HQ shook and a few objects fell off the walls, the physical effects of the blasts did indeed feel like a 5.0 earthquake. And the sound was that equal to a space shuttle taking off. The heat from the explosions could even be felt through the walls, it wasn't all that intense, but it was a noticeable increase in temperature within the room. The whole thing lasted only about ten seconds.

A few seconds after the explosion was done, Leon got up from his spot and called out, "Everyone ok?"

"Yeah," was the overall reply. Leon went over and opened the door to see the damage. A few others followed him outside.

Namine however didn't move, she felt numb. Nothing was real anymore, how could it be real? Roxas...gone? That wasn't possible. Even if she did feel the tremble and hear the roar of the explosions, it wasn't real. She slowly got up with Aerith and walked outside with the others. She saw the final damage, only structures made from stone were even partially left standing. Just about everything was chard and smoking, a few small fires were burning. It smelt awful outside, it was the smell of burnt wood, dirt, gasses and rubber all mixed into one. Upon finally seeing the results of these explosions, Namine fell to her knees and cried openly. It wasn't real until she _saw_ it.

"We...we have to find him..." Namine said in between sobs.

"Namine, after an explosion like this, there wouldn't be anything left to find..." Riku said to her in a hushed voice. All of his and Ansem's work...gone in a matter of seconds.

"No, Namine's right. We have to at least _try _to find him." Axel said.

"Well, if it would out your minds to ease, then ok...we have another hour until the train arrives for us. And all of the heartless are without a doubt dead. Gather a party and go search for him." Leon said. He knew there wouldn't be any results from this search, but after a loss like that, he wanted to at least allow them to have some sort of closure in a search.

So Namine, Axel, Riku, Cloud and Leon went to go look for him.

"So Riku, where was it that you two separated?" Axel asked him.

"It was outside of this run down church, way over there. Follow me." Riku said and lead the search party to where he last saw Roxas.

When they finally got there, hardly anything was left standing, but surprisingly, the church was still managing to keep itself standing. There was still clouds of dust and smoke clouding the sky. And the sun was shinning through a bell tower in the church.

The group split up and began to look around and under the rubble and debris. The only one who actually thought there was hope in calling out his name was Namine.

"Roxas!!!" she called out every few seconds.

"Namine...." Axel's said in a sympathetic tone.

"Shut up." she said to Axel. "Roxas!" she still wouldn't accept that he was gone.

Riku was starting to blame himself for Roxas' death. '_Why didn't I make him come back with me? Why did I just agree like that and run off with the Dusks? We could have made it back together, I made it back with five minutes left to spare! This is my fault...'_

Axel wasn't thinking much differently from Riku. _'Oh I saw him running for the door, why didn't I wake up and grab him before he got outside? I could have stopped him! But if I didn't..Riku would be the victim of the blast...I don't want to be cruel, but I would have rather it be Riku...'_

"Come on you guys, lets get to the train station now..." Leon called out to them.

"Hold on! Just a few more minutes." Namine said. Leon showed that it was ok by not even saying anything. Namine looked back up at the bell tower of the church and saw the sun's rays filtering through them. She had the sudden desire to search inside the remains of the church.

When she pushed open the double doors, one of them fell off it's hinges and to the ground and broke apart. She then walked in and looked around. It was full of sunlight since all of the windows were broken. And there was surprisingly no smoke within the destroyed church. She looked around with no luck, then she saw what looked to be a metal ladder, she climbed up it into the bell tower itself. There was nothing up there but bells of course. One of the bells had fallen from it's chains and layed on it's side. When she approached it to look inside, she saw what she thought was a shoe sticking out from it's mouth...

"...Roxas...?"

__________________________

**Ah ha! I'm going to be a dick and leave you all with a cliff hanger. **

**I'll finish this story now few sure, no worries. But I can't tell you when D:**

**But I'll be soon. **

**Oh, and the song "New Divide" by Linkin Park, I thought fit quite well to this chapter. **


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